WALL STREET READIES FOR CREDIT CARD FEE SHOWDOWN: Banks and credit card providers are launching a lobbying blitz as the industry prepares for a fight this fall with policymakers seeking to rein various fees credit cards charge their customers. The Consumer Bankers Association is dubbing the effort “Washington Wallet Watch,” which will take aim at both the impending CFPB rule that would cap how much companies can penalize customers for overdue payments, as well as legislation in Congress seeking to dilute the market dominance of large card issuers and their control over the interchange fees merchants must pay to process their transactions. — “Americans rely on credit cards to pay bills and earn rewards now more than ever,” CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson said in a statement announcing the new campaign. “Despite this fact, Washington politicians are seeking to ‘fix’ a credit card system that isn’t broken by advancing ideologically driven policy proposals devoid of facts or reality.” — Johnson argued that the CFPB rule in particular, the final version of which is expected in a matter of weeks, “would raise costs and restrict access for the millions of American households and small businesses that use credit cards to make ends meet, pay for emergency expenses, and cover the costs of everyday purchases.” — CBA’s campaign will include a website with resources and industry talking points, as well as a planned media buy timed for Congress’ return to Washington next month, targeting not only lawmakers but “their constituents, many of whom would be directly harmed should these proposals take effect,” spokesperson Weston Loyd told PI, though he declined to discuss the budget for the campaign. — Meanwhile CBA member Mastercard, a key target of policymakers’ efforts to ding credit card companies, has boosted its lobbying power as the fight ramps up, according to newly filed disclosures. The card giant in July retained Tower 19’s Jed Bhuta, who has in turn tapped Lincoln Park Group’s Reilly O’Connor as a subcontractor to lobby on swipe fee bills, according to the filings. EY ADDS DEM ENERGY TAX VET: Aruna Kalyanam is leaving the Biden administration, where she served as deputy assistant secretary for tax and budget in Treasury’s Office of Legislative Affairs, to join EY as principal in its sustainability tax practice. — Prior to that, Kalyanam spent more than two decades on the Hill as a Democratic tax counsel on the House Ways and Means Committee and staff director on the panel’s tax subcommittee, where she oversaw a portfolio including renewable energy, energy efficiency, and infrastructure. DID FACEBOOK WALK SO PAYPAL COULD RUN?: “PayPal’s stablecoin is likely to succeed where Facebook’s failed, thanks to the payment giant’s standing in Washington and policymakers’ greater understanding of the issues in the last three years,” Reuters’ Hannah Lang reports. — “PayPal this month said it was launching PayPal USD, a crypto token pegged to the U.S. dollar, making it the second major global company to launch a stablecoin after Facebook, now Meta Platforms, unveiled Libra in June 2019. The move, which comes as PayPal transitions to a new CEO announced last week, seems risky after Facebook’s stablecoin was crushed by political opposition, and as regulators home in on the crypto sector following several meltdowns.” — “But PayPal is in a stronger position than Facebook, said former officials, executives and analysts. Policymakers are more familiar with stablecoins, crypto tokens typically pegged to a fiat currency, than they were in 2019. A push to create federal stablecoin regulations has also helped boost their legitimacy in the eyes of lawmakers.” — “‘The world has changed dramatically since Facebook’s Libra project. There was no familiarity with stablecoins whatsoever,’ said Christopher Giancarlo, former chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ‘Since then, the administration, Congress and the Federal Reserve have had time to get their minds around stablecoins and stablecoin regulation and there has been very extensive public relations by the industry, including a lot of lobbying.’” — “In contrast to Facebook, a social media giant that had been under sustained scrutiny over privacy issues and Russian election interference, PayPal is an established financial operator in Washington.”
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