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As expected, the Office of Thrift Supervision, National Credit Union Administration and Federal Reserve adopted strict new rules for credit card issuers today (CardLine, 12/17). In a statement released this morning, Linda Sherry, director of national priorities at Consumer Action, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization, praised the rules but complained that they will not take effect until July 1, 2010. "This is a grave misstep in an otherwise stellar consumer-protection rulemaking," Sherry wrote. "When they can least afford it, cardholders will be vulnerable to the piling on of unconscionably high finance charges." U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, agreed, in a statement released this morning, that "Congress should act sooner [than 2010] to protect American consumers by giving credit card protections the permanence and force of law." Maloney called the rules "a strong first step" but added she will continue working with the subcommittee and with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) "to fill any gaps in protections" for cardholders. "I'll be introducing a new Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights in the House in the first days of the 111th Congress," writes Maloney, who wrote the bill. The bill passed in the House in September but was not brought to a vote in the Senate.
