Pa. banks, credit unions believe bill will cause chaos for businesses, consumers

A statewide coalition of community banks and credit unions expressed their opposition to House Bill 2090, approved this week by the Pennsylvania House Finance Committee. 

HB 2090 provides for prohibition on certain payment card network fee practices; and imposing penalties. The bill was endorsed by this week the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association.

According to a release, opponents of the legislation say it would prohibit interchange from being applied to the sales tax portion of credit and debit card transactions and cause chaos for small businesses and consumers in Pennsylvania. 

“This legislation would disrupt a payment system that works — raising costs, reducing competition, and placing new burdens squarely on the backs of small businesses and consumers,” Duncan Campbell, president/CEO of the PA Bankers Association, said in a statement. “By carving out Pennsylvania from the global payments network, it risks siphoning investment out of local communities and making life less affordable and more inconvenient for families and small businesses.”  

Kevin Shivers, president/CEO of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers, said the proposal makes it harder for small businesses to compete. 

“Local merchants would face operational headaches and new expenses, if they could even afford to comply, and corporate mega-stores would benefit,” said Shivers. 

Per the release, flaws in the legislation include the following: 

• Many small businesses will be forced to spend thousands of dollars upgrading point-of-sale systems, if they can afford to, and rework their accounting practices. This could include running separate transactions for the cost of goods and sales tax or collecting sales tax by cash orcheck. 
• Consumers would face new burdens, including longer checkout times, reduced privacy, fewer credit card rewards, or having to pay sales tax by cash or check. Because interchange revenue supports fraud protection, transaction security, and consumer rewards programs, reducing interchange wouldlikely meanfewer points, miles, and cash-back benefits. 
• It would make Pennsylvania an island in the global payment system. Nojurisdictionon the planet calculates credit and debit card transactions in the manner required in H.B. 2090. 
• Similar legislation is being pushed in states across the country by corporatemega-stores. In 2025, these bills were defeated in 26jurisdictions and passed nowhere. 
• H.B. 2090likely wouldnot withstand legal scrutiny, based on a recent court ruling involving similar legislation in Illinois. 

“Interchange is what makes secure electronic payments and consumer rewards possible,” said Patrick Conway, president/CEO of CrossState Credit Union Association. “If interchange is reduced, as this measure proposes, consumers will feel it directly — in their wallets and in their loss of convenience and privacy — while undermining the investments credit unions make in the communities they serve.”