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Main Street small businesses in New Mexico are legacy pillars of our economy, and they are undeniably facing a brutal financial squeeze from persistent inflation, rising labor costs and shrinking margins. The Credit Card Competition Act, foolishly supported by the New Mexico Restaurant Association and the National Federation of Independent Business, is no remedy at all: It鈥檚 a government-mandated price-control scheme that threatens to undermine consumer rewards, harm local tourism and ultimately fail consumers.

We do not have to guess what happens when Washington intervenes in the complex mechanics of the payments ecosystem. We鈥檝e seen this before. When Congress enacted the Durbin Amendment in 2010 to cap debit card interchange fees on the premise of consumer relief, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that a staggering 98% of retailers simply pocketed the regulatory savings rather than passing them on to shoppers.

A subsequent economic study found that 77% of merchants made no downward adjustments to their retail prices whatsoever, while 22% actually increased prices after the Durbin caps took effect. Furthermore, Mastercard confirmed that only 3% of merchants ever intended to pass those regulatory windfalls on to the public. Instead of helping working families, banks were forced to offset their lost processing revenue by slashing debit rewards programs and eliminating free checking accounts for millions of low- and middle-income consumers.

The careless assertion that credit card rewards programs are entirely divorced from processing networks is economically inaccurate and flies in the face of financial reality. Interchange fees form the absolute financial backbone of the modern electronic payment system, providing the exact revenue stream necessary to fund secure transactions, data encryption, zero-liability fraud protections and consumer loyalty programs. According to comprehensive data from PYMNTS Intelligence, 86% of all interchange fee income is directly allocated to funding these rewards programs. In 2019 alone, this structural ecosystem generated $35 billion in total rewards value that American households relied on to stretch their monthly budgets.

To argue that dismantling this rewards ecosystem will not jeopardize tourism ignores the fundamental way modern travel is funded and sustained. Airline loyalty programs and co-branded credit cards are no longer mere perks; they are essential macroeconomic infrastructure that stabilizes a volatile aviation industry and actively bring out-of-state travelers into New Mexico's historic plazas and venues. In 2025, Delta Air Lines received $8.2 billion in cash from American Express, representing roughly 14% of its adjusted operating revenue and 1.4 times its adjusted operating income.

Similarly, American Airlines reported $6.2 billion in partner loyalty payments, which were four times its adjusted operating income. Industry analysts have noted that the modern airline is essentially a gigantic rewards program that just happens to fly airplanes. When you attack interchange fees, you threaten the financial engine that keeps commercial flights affordable and keeps the skies filled with tourists ready to spend at historic hotels in Mesilla, local restaurants in Farmington or their favorite Airbnb in Albuquerque.

The real effect of the Credit Card Competition Act would not be a thriving Main Street, but rather a government-engineered transfer of wealth away from consumers and community financial institutions straight to ultra-large, big-box retailers. Passing this legislation permanently locks in disadvantages for everyday consumers by taking away the hard-earned cash-back and travel miles they accrue with every swipe. Forcing an artificial redesign of a highly functional $9 trillion national payments system will only leave New Mexicans with higher banking fees, fewer travel options and a shrinking credit market.

Patrick Brenner is the founder, president and CEO of the Southwest Public Policy Institute.