Amalgamated Bank CEO on why we can and should track gun purchases on cards
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 5 months ago
Amalgamated Bank CEO Priscilla Sims Brown says the reasons major credit card companies have given for not supporting the tracking of gun purchases don’t hold up.
Merchant category codes (MCC) are used for all kinds of purchases by card companies, but not firearms.
Whether you’re getting your car repaired, or buying dinner, nearly every business that takes a credit card has a unique merchant code that reports your purchase — except when you buy a firearm.
A merchant category code, typically referred to as MCC, is a four-digit number used by credit card companies to classify different types of businesses and identify the types of goods or services that a company sells. They were first mandated by the Internal Revenue Service in 2004, and currently, the MCC guidelines are maintained by the International Organization for Standardization.
If you have ever been called by your bank, asking you to confirm prior purchases that were detected as potentially fraudulent, that was by way of an MCC. Credit card companies use MCC intelligence and data to find aberrations or patterns in consumer purchases to prevent things ranging from fraud to human trafficking.
Priscilla Sims Brown, president & CEO of Amalgamated Bank, told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Evolve Global Summit on Wednesday that the banking and financial industry can, and should, use these codes to track gun purchases in order to help prevent acts of gun violence.
“While there are merchant codes for the hair salon and the shoe shine place and every other retailer, there’s no merchant code for gun stores,” said Brown. “If we did have a merchant code for gun stores, we could detect patterns that would indicate that there had been something unusual going on.”
Credit card companies could detect any unusual activity, and submit a suspicious activity report with law enforcement, if needed.
Okay mommy hen. We know you want to be controller of the whole world. All CEOs of big corporations do. Your job is just a chance to run the lives of other people because you know best.
But you see, I see things a little differently. I see your desire to control others as sinful.
On July 14, 2022 at 10:15 pm, Chas said:
You do know she is a negress?
On July 14, 2022 at 10:51 pm, X said:
“Priscilla”
“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them”
Isaiah 3:12
On July 15, 2022 at 7:53 am, June J said:
Two many women in charge of things in this world. Women were not designed to rule over men.
On July 15, 2022 at 8:26 am, Fred said:
She seems like a fairly useful idiot, maybe they’ll dump her into the open trench last.
On July 15, 2022 at 1:09 pm, scott s. said:
I see that bank is owned by SEIU. That’s all I need to know.