WASHINGTON – A key congressional committee voted approval this morning to a credit card reform bill that would go much further than the new card rules adopted by the Federal Reserve in December and would go into effect much sooner.
The bill endorsed by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit would bar retroactive rate hikes, so-called universal default and double-cycle billing, while curtailing solicitation of cards to minors and the allocation of payments to higher-rate debt.
Both CUNA and NAFCU are opposed to the bill, especially the provisions on solicitation to minors and requiring additional disclosures to cardholders.
The bill is similar to one that passed the House in the last Congress but was never voted by the Senate.
The Fed approved some of the same reforms in December as amendments to its Reg Z, but those rules do not take effect until 2010. The House bill would take effect 90 days after being signed into law.
