IMGCAP(1)]
A timetable for passing credit card-reform legislation this year remains undefined following a Senate Banking Committee hearing yesterday during which experts on both sides of the issue testified. U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the committee's chairman, said after the hearing he did not "have a timetable" for such a bill and passing it would not be simple, reports American Banker, a CardLine sister publication. "You can see this is not going to be one of those where everyone is going to hold hands and lead in 'Kumbaya,'" Dodd said. Dodd joined Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., this week in re-introducing a card-reform bill that would prohibit issuers from raising interest rates on existing debt and charging interest on penalty fees (CardLine, 2/12). At the hearing, Dodd noted that, although his bill echoes many of the regulations included in new Federal Reserve rules that go into effect in July 2010, reforms should come sooner and have the force of law. In testimony submitted to committee members, Kenneth J. Clayton, senior vice president and general counsel for the American Bankers Association, wrote: "We believe that the Federal Reserve's rule, which represents the most-sweeping reforms in the history of credit cards, has addressed the fundamental concerns of cardholders." In a statement issued after the hearing, Linda Sherry, director of national priorities at Consumer Action, a nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based consumer-advocacy organization, urged lawmakers to take "bold and decisive" action on card-reform legislation. "We understand there are many pressing issues vying for the Senate's attention, but we cannot allow a call for credit card protection to fall on deaf ears," she said.
