Obama Makes Case for Greater Credit Card Reform
Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee passed a bill that seeks to reign in unfair practices by the credit card industry. Among other things, the new legislation would ban excessive fees and arbitrary interest rate hikes. The bill could be up for a House vote as early as next week.
But President Obama wants more reform, and he’s meeting with executives from 14 credit card companies today in an attempt to press the issue of cardholder rights and protection.
Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett says that the administration is striving to “promote simplicity, require transparency, demand fairness, and ensure accountability - so that we can strengthen consumer protections against abusive and deceptive practices,”
Approved Federal Reserve laws which, among other things, do away with universal default, won’t take effect until 2010. The new bills in the House and Senate could be passed into law before then.
