Senate Panel Grills Banks On Credit Card Practices

WASHINGTON–Credit card banks came under fire in a hearing before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, where the chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, said attempts by the credit card industry to institute reforms haven’t gone far enough. "The relatively new reforms that you folks have made when the spotlight is on you…we can't have hearings here every day," Sen. Levin said. "So you have to have some regulation, and you have to have legislation, and that's the line we have to figure out where we stop, where to cross." At issue are a variety of billing practices Levin said he believes are designed to confuse consumers. Although Levin is pushing for a bill, such legislation typically would come out of the Senate Banking Committee, led by Sen. Christopher Dodd, who has indicated he wants to give the industry a chance to reform itself before writing any laws or regulation.