Why Walmart and Target Want the Fed to Control Your Credit Cards
... The proposed legislation will give new powers to the federal government requiring the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system to create new regulations for how consumers’ credit card payments are processed. It will allow retailers to effectively ignore a customer’s preferred credit card network and instead process the payment on a cheaper, less secure network. ...
The already sketchy security of electronic payments is about to get sketchier if the Big Box Lobby has their way.
No specific legislation proposed yet, but arms are being twisted.
Petition here: https://stopthebigboxbaitandswitch.com/ You may not want to sign it electronically, but can always contact your CongressCritter directly to express concern.
I need to look more into this for sure.. but "instead process the payment on a cheaper, less secure network" screams straight up propaganda to me. I work in software development and I can tell you that "less secure" is corporate speak for "we have less control"
There are exceptions of course, and again I need to look more into this, so take that with a grain of salt.