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A United Kingdom small-business organization has called on the British government to cap credit card interest rates. "We know that entrepreneurs use both personal and company credit cards to finance their businesses," John Wright, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, wrote this week in his New Year message for 2009. Given that the Bank of England base interest rate has dropped to 2%, its chancellor and governor "must and can take a very serious look at capping of interest rates charged on credit cards," Wright continued. He also called for banks to release more credit to "viable" small businesses, especially given the "billions of pounds poured into" British banks in recent weeks as part of financial aid programs. Wright also said British governmental bodies should purchase goods and services from local businesses. "Small businesses can and will play a pivotal role in driving the UK economy out of recession and onto the motorway of recovery," Wright concluded. The call from the federation comes weeks after UK issuers, facing pressure from the nation's government, said they would tweak rules to allow cardholders more time to pay card debts and to protect consumers from sudden interest rate increases (CardLine Global, 12 Dec).
