There are many important components to Missouri’s economy including agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, and yes – financial cybersecurity. However, that’s being threatened by a bill written by Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas. The bill, called the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), seeks to limit your free market choice, and rewrite how credit card processing and fees are charged.
Let’s consider Mastercard, which is a large Missouri employer. Their largest global transaction center is in the city of O’Fallon in St. Charles County. It processes 159 billion transactions a year. That’s BILLION – with a “B.” It boasts 5,700 employees in Missouri (16% of Mastercard’s global workforce) and provides over $2 billion in wages and employee benefits to Missourians. It is a high-tech, data-rich company, that will be energy self-sufficient soon.
Whether located here like my example or elsewhere, every Missourian, especially most senior citizens, who are one misstep away from financial catastrophe need the highest level of cyber security for all their financial transactions.
The cybercrime landscape is evolving at an alarming rate with an unprecedented surge in sophisticated attack techniques using AI-powered threats, deepfakes, fraud and banking scams. Global losses from data breaches, scams and bank fraud amounted to $485.6 billion in 2023. Credit card scams remain the largest cause of identity theft. It is more important than ever we stay vigilant when it comes to our financial information.
The best way to stay safe from fraud is to pay for things with a credit card. It offers banks who are issuers of credit cards extensive technology safeguards from fraud, whether purchases are made online or in person. If your credit card information is stolen, you can flag those charges quickly. The issuing bank or credit union typically absorbs the cost, and you are made whole. Debit cards and checks don’t offer the same protections. Once that money clears, it’s gone.
Issuing banks and credit unions can offer these consumer protections and make investments in cybersecurity because they charge retailers a very small transaction fee (usually about 1.5%) when taking credit card payments. These fees support their cybersecurity efforts. Proposed credit card mandates like Durbin’s bill (pushed by special-interest lobbyists) will alter the depth and range of cybersecurity, identity protection, and your reward programs.
Federal mandates will change how payments are processed and will allow payment processing on less secure networks. If this legislation becomes law, fraud and identity theft will increase and hurt our state economy.
Most of Missouri’s seniors are one financial misstep away from financial catastrophe. To help seniors retire more securely, our grassroots organization, MO Tax Relief Now, worked for years to eliminate income tax on Social Security and public pensions, and to allow counties to freeze property tax on a senior’s primary residence. This tax relief certainly helps, but seniors, and everyone else, still must be very careful when it comes to their financial security and identity.
As the founder and managing director of MO Tax Relief Now I encourage Missourians to tell their U.S. Senators to support Mastercard’s efforts to insure cybersecurity and prevent identity theft. Tell them to oppose Durbin’s CCCA bill.
Let’s work together to keep everyone financially secure and safe from cybersecurity fraud and identity theft.
Founder & Managing Director of MO Tax Relief Now
