In a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley questioned executives from Visa and Mastercard regarding their companies’ profit margins and the impact on American consumers and small businesses. Addressing Linda Kirkpatrick, President of Mastercard for the Americas, and Bill Sheedy, Senior Advisor to Visa Inc.’s CEO, Hawley highlighted the growing credit card debt crisis in the United States.
“You’ve got debt like we’ve never seen before in American history,” said Senator Hawley. He further criticized the companies’ market dominance: “[Visa and Mastercard’s] profit margins are as high or higher than they’ve ever been. You have 80 percent of the relevant market in the credit card interchange fees that we’re talking about, and yet, you couldn’t survive if there’s any competition? This is just classic, collusive monopoly behavior.”
Senator Hawley also advocated for capping credit card interest rates, a proposal he has introduced legislation for. “This has to change,” he insisted. “I thought one of the best proposals that the President-elect, President-elect Trump, made during his last campaign was to cap the interest rates of credit cards.”
Recently, Senator Hawley released a statement urging Congress to prioritize capping credit card interest rates. He previously introduced the Capping Credit Card Interest Rates Act, which aims to set an 18 percent cap on these rates to provide relief for working Americans.
