Sponsors (3)
The bill increases routing flexibility and competition (potentially lowering costs and improving acceptance) and clarifies federal rules while imposing compliance burdens and creating risks of disruption or market distortions if listings or exemptions are mishandled.
Small businesses and merchants can route card transactions over any eligible network without penalties, increasing competition among networks and likely lowering merchants' processing costs (which may translate to lower prices or better acceptance for consumers).
Large card issuers and payment networks gain clearer federal rules on routing practices, reducing legal uncertainty and standardizing industry behavior across the market.
A public Treasury/Board list identifying foreign- or state‑linked networks improves payment-system integrity and supports national security by informing regulators and market participants about elevated risks.
If networks or operators are wrongly listed or delisted on the Treasury/Board risk list, U.S. partners could face disrupted contracts, reduced processing options, and higher costs for merchants and consumers.
An exemption for certain three‑party network models may advantage those networks, reduce competition in some segments, and preserve higher costs for affected merchants and consumers.
Regulatory changes could shift liability or operational responsibilities among issuers, processors, and merchants, creating short‑term disruption in checkout systems and tokenization/authentication flows.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 13, 2026 by Roger Wayne Marshall · Last progress January 13, 2026
Requires the Federal Reserve to write rules that stop large credit card issuers and payment networks from forcing a credit card’s electronic transactions to use only a single payment network (with a narrow, temporary two-network exception). The Fed must also ban routing restrictions and exclusive authentication/tokenization requirements that prevent merchants from choosing among eligible networks. The law targets big banks (issuers with over $100 billion in assets), exempts 3‑party payment networks, creates definitions and timelines for rulemaking (regs due within 1 year; each final rule takes effect 180 days after issuance), and requires a public list of payment networks posing national security risks (maintained with Treasury and updated regularly). The Fed must reassess the market every 3 years and can eliminate the two‑network exception if the top-two networks change.