Trump renews his calls to cap credit card fees

• Key insights: President Donald Trump on Wednesday night once again said that he supported capping what he called "out-of-control credit card swipe fees" at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. 
• What's at stake: Wednesday's comments mark the third time the President has said he supported the Credit Card Competition Act. 
• Forward look: Trump has said that cutting credit card swipe fees could save the average family about $1,200 a year. 

President Donald Trump at the inaugural Republican midterm convention in Dallas revived his push to cap credit card swipe fees in a nearly two-hour address that also promised Americans a $5,000 payday if the GOP stayed in power. 

"We will cut out-of-control credit card swipe fees, saving the average family at least $1,200 per year," Trump said. "We will not allow Americans to pay seven to eight times more for those fees than they do in any other country. We pay seven, eight and nine times more than they do." U.S. credit card fees vary in comparison to other countries, but generally range from slightly less to about 250% higher than other countries, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

According to a Vanderbilt University analysis of credit card interest rate caps, an 18% cap would save Americans $16 billion and $48 billion annually, respectively, with no impact to rewards or lending volumes. A 10% cap would save Americans $100 billion, but would lead to a $27 billion reduction in rewards for customers with FICO credit scores of 760 or lower.

Wednesday's comments mark the third time that the president has publicly said he supports the Credit Card Competition Act. Trump first said he supported the CCCA in January, and again brought up the embattled legislation in an August Truth Social post endorsing Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican senator from Kansas. 

The Merchant Payments Coalition, which has long supported regulation limiting fees that credit card issuers can charge merchants, cheered the mention. 

"President Trump is right that dealing with credit card swipe fees would be one of the most effective ways to help American families," MPC executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in a statement. "Credit card swipe fees drive up costs for small businesses and prices for American families every day. Bringing competition to these constantly rising fees would provide relief at a time when it is badly needed." 

American Bankers Association spokesperson Sarah Grano said in a statement sent to American Banker that "credit card routing mandates would harm American consumers by limiting competition and choice, increasing the risk of fraud, threatening popular rewards programs, and reducing access to credit. Our highly secure and convenient payment card system should not be upended to satisfy the demands of a few corporate megastores." 

Credit card swipe fees have been a heated topic of debate for years. The Credit Card Competition Act would require banks with at least $100 billion in assets to allow credit cards to be processed over at least one unaffiliated network such as Star or NYCE, similar to the requirements of debit cards for banks with assets over $10 billion. 

Merchants maintain that fees have been rising because of lack of competition in the market, which allows Visa and Mastercard to centrally set swipe fee rates charged by the banks that issue cards under their brands. Banks have argued that any caps on credit card fees would hinder rewards programs and ultimately restrict consumers' access to credit, especially those with subprime credit scores.