Can credit card codes help address gun violence?

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Every time you swipe a credit card, you produce data—and now, a new tool could make it easier for the financial industry to identify suspicious gun purchases. But will companies want to use it?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:11.7	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
0:13.3	I'm Whalen Wong.
0:14.3	And I'm Darien Woods.
0:16.0	The debate over how to curb gun violence in the US has arrived at the doorstep of the
0:20.8	financial industry.
0:22.2	And more specifically, companies linked to credit cards.
0:26.0	With all the infrastructure that undergirds the credit card industry, there is one little
0:31.2	piece of it that has gotten thrust into this conversation.
0:34.8	And it is called the Merchant Category Code.
0:37.8	Gun control advocates believe the merchant category code could be an important tool in identifying
0:42.6	suspicious gun sales.
0:44.8	But getting retailers plus other players in the credit card industry to use this tool is
0:50.0	another thing.
0:51.4	To do on the show, we zoom in on this humble bit of financial plumbing to see how it works
0:56.7	and why it's getting the spotlight in the gun violence debate.
1:05.3	Support for this podcast comes from NPR sponsor Raymond James, a firm focused on transforming
1:10.6	lives, businesses and communities through tailored wealth management, banking, and capital
1:15.8	market solutions.
1:17.2	Learn more at RaymondJames.com.
1:19.7	In 2018, Andrew Ross Socken got curious about something.
1:24.3	He's a columnist and editor at large at the New York Times, where he covers the financial
	...

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