Amendments Target Credit Card Industry
New York Times – As the Senate powers through dozens of proposed changes to the Democrats’ financial regulatory legislation, lawmakers have proposed at least three amendments designed to protect consumers and businesses from high credit card interest rates and fees.
The efforts to restrict credit card companies are coming mostly from liberal Democrats. And while the changes are likely to have popular appeal with consumers, their prospects are uncertain given that Congress approved a bill rewriting the rules of the credit card industry not even a year ago.
The proposal with perhaps the best chances of being included in the financial regulatory bill, would restore states’ ability to enforce interest rate caps on out-of-state companies lending to their residents.
The amendment, sponsored by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, and Senator Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi, would close a loophole created in 1978 when the Supreme Court ruled that the laws of a bank’s home state govern transactions across state lines, Mr. Whitehouse said.
