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The credit card industry is coming under further scrutiny for its allegedly deceptive practices as President Barack Obama plans to meet with executives from several major credit card companies on Thursday. While many legislators in Washington are threatening to increase regulation, some industry observers say it may not be the best answer. Aite Group research director Gwenn Bezard says there is no doubt that the administration means well when it seeks to make credit cards a more consumer-friendly product. But he says if by requiring greater disclosure of terms, the administration means to add new pages of fine print, it will not help consumers who usually have no time or appetite for reading those disclosure forms. "If anything, consumers don't need more disclosure, just better disclosure and at the right place," says Bezard. "Allowing consumers to see – in a very simple way – what the card is costing them through their online banking or on their bank statement, for instance, would make a big difference for many consumers." It's unclear to Boston-based Aite Group, however, if the best path is regulation. Bezard says an alternative "could be to encourage the creation of incentives in the marketplace that reward issuers for making their products simple and easy to understand, giving a marketing edge to the do-gooders."
