Fed Forestalls Congress with Credit Card Regs
May 12th, 2008 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: RegulationsCongressional Democrats have been squabbling with the Bush Administration over the need for reform in the credit card industry. Folks like House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Christopher Dodd are touting legislation, while the Administration favors less stringent industry oversight through regulatory changes. We got a glimpse of those changes when the Federal Reserve Board published a new regulatory proposal earlier this month that will, they hope, get the job done and forestall more draconian measures that might emerge from Congress. Interestingly, a 2007 NASE poll found that microbusiness owners would favor proposals that prevented card issuers from randomly raising rates and required 45 day notice of rate changes. Neither of those two reforms appear to be included in this proposal.
