Credit Card Companies
'Pause' Implementation of
New Gun Purchase Tracking Code

By Dan Zimmerman. Mar 9, 2023

The pushback against Amalgamated Bank CEO Priscilla Sims Brown's plan began almost as soon as she started to seriously push for a new merchant category code for gun retailer transactions. And when she finally managed to mau-mau the International Standards Organization into approving her gun purchase tracking tool, parties like the NSSF, various state Attorneys General, along with state and federal legislators kicked into high gear.

Brown and the credit card companies said it was all part of wanting to monitor "suspicious activity." The fact that use of the code would chill lawful gun sales while resulting in inaccurate Suspicious Activity Reports to federal regulators was just a price we'd all have to pay for more "safety."

Today, however, Bloomberg (heh) reports that the all of the heat and political pressure applied to the credit card companies is paying off.

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have decided to pause implementing a plan that activists had hoped would track firearm sales and help curve gun violence.

The payment giants – along with Discover Financial Services – are delaying the work after a series of bills in the state legislatures targeted the International Organization for Standardization's new merchant category code. The MCC was created to be used when processing transactions for gun and ammunition stores.

It seems the credit card companies didn't relish the prospect of new state and federal legislation impinging on their business practices as a result of the targeting of gun buyers. .....