Banking

November 2, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) today announced her support for the Credit Card Rate Freeze Act of 2009, by signing on as a co-sponsor. This legislation will immediately freeze credit card interest rates on all existing balances for consumers. The bill serves as a supplement to the consumer protection measure, the Credit CARD Act, which passed earlier this year.

Under that law, beginning February 2010, credit cards can no longer arbitrarly raise interest rates, fees and finance charges on a customer’s existing balance. Credit card companies are currently using the grace period as an opportunity to raise interest rates and fees before the Credit CARD Act goes into effect.    » read more »

Congressman joins colleagues in urging bailed out Wall Street firms to stop taking advantage of responsible customers

WASHINGTON, Oct 30 - Today Congressman Mark Schauer (D-MI) co-sponsored the Credit Card Rate Freeze Act, legislation that would immediately freeze interest rates on consumer credit card accounts ahead of federal credit card reform legislation slated to go into effect early next year.

Earlier this week, Schauer joined 45 of his House colleagues in sending a letter to the CEOs of Bank of America and Citigroup, which together have received $45 billion in federal bailout funds, urging them to reconsider their decision to charge new credit card fees on customers in good standing.    » read more »

Systemic Risk Fund Should Act Like Insurance, Not a Bailout

October 29, 2009 -- (Washington DC) Today, members of the Financial Services Committee evaluated comprehensive reform of our financial system, directing questions to Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner. Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, made the following remarks:

Mr. Secretary, I'd like to thank you for appearing before us today; I just had a few comments about the systemic risk proposal that was revealed on Tuesday night.    » read more »

October 29, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – Congressman Barney Frank today called a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee to discuss legislation to deal with large financial institutions which may causes systemic risks to the American economy. Frank seeks to establish federal “resolution authority” which would make it possible to wind down very large, failing firms without using taxpayer funds.

A similar mechanism, operated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), has successfully operated for decades, protected both depositors and the economy as a whole. The task of creating a system for institutions which fall outside the jurisdiction of the FDIC will be a major, difficult hurdle for proponents of financial reform.    » read more »

October 29, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri (NY-24) called on the CEOs of Bank of America and Citigroup to end the unreasonable new credit card interest rates and fees that the two banks are allegedly going to be charging consumers for not carrying a consistent balance on their credit card.

"To see two companies that came before Congress only a year ago and asked for federal funding to save their banks and gouge the consumer is despicable," Arcuri said, "The American people have done more than their fair share to rescue our country from this economic downturn and it is time for these banks to recognize that they are in the business of customer service and are not set up to prey on the consumer, but rather help them succeed."    » read more »

Company Continues Momentum in Comprehensive Effort to Help Struggling Homeowners

CALABASAS, Calif., Oct. 29 -- Bank of America announced today it has surpassed its previously stated target of helping at least 125,000 financially distressed homeowners begin trial modifications through the federal government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) by November 1.

Bank of America has initiated nearly one in five HAMP trial modifications industrywide since the company began participating in the program in April. Since beginning its HAMP outreach efforts, the bank's homeownership retention division has contacted nearly 600,000 potentially eligible homeowners to ascertain their interest in HAMP and has extended more than 200,000 offers of trial modifications under the program.    » read more »

October 29, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, March 31 –The Senate banking committee today narrowly approved and sent to the Senate legislation to ban abusive credit card practices.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cosponsored the bill that cleared committee, but he said that when the legislation reaches the Senate floor he will press for a nationwide cap on credit card interest rates.

Sanders on March 12 introduced a measure to place a 15 percent ceiling on interest rates on credit cards and loans to consumers and businesses.

Banks that have received the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history, he said, should not be allowed to slap consumers with heavy fees on top of interest rates that have shot up to 30 percent or more.    » read more »

Joined by Consumer Advocate, Connecticut Consumer who was Unfairly Hit with Overdraft Fees

October 19, 2009 -- At a press conference at Stamford Government Center today, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) unveiled The Fairness and Accountability in Receiving (FAIR) Overdraft Coverage Act, a bill to protect Americans from excessive checking account overdraft fees.

Dodd was joined at the event by Attorney Ellery Plotkin, a consumer advocate, and Mario Livieri, a resident of Branford who was unfairly hit with overdraft fees earlier this year.    » read more »

October 19, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Jack Reed (D-RI) to announce the introduction of The Fairness and Accountability in Receiving (FAIR) Overdraft Coverage Act. This legislation would protect Americans from excessive checking account overdraft fees.

“Taxpayers helped stabilize the financial services industry – big banks should not return the favor by slamming consumers with billions of dollars in overdraft fees,” said Brown, who chairs the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy. “In Ohio alone, it’s estimated that consumers paid nearly $900 million in overdraft charges last year. This is about putting consumers first.”    » read more »

Approximately $2.6 Billion in Writedowns From Improvement in Company Credit Spreads; Terminating Government Guarantee Term Sheet Costs $402 Million

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 16 -- Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) today reported a third-quarter 2009 net loss of $1.0 billion. After deducting preferred dividends of $1.2 billion, including $893 million related to dividends paid to the U.S. government, the diluted loss per share was $0.26.

Those results compared with net income of $1.2 billion, or diluted earnings per share of $0.15, during the year-ago period.

Through the first nine months of the year, the company had net income of $6.5 billion, or $0.39 per share after preferred dividends, compared with $5.8 billion, or $1.09 per share a year earlier.    » read more »

October 15, 2009 -- Washington, DC -- Congressman Paul Hodes, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, released the following statement after a telephone press conference on reforming financial services and credit card company practices. Congressman Hodes was joined on the call by Dartmouth Professor Karl Griswold.

Professor Griswold’s credit card company arbitrarily lowered his credit limit while he was seeking to purchase his first home. This lowered credit line resulted in a deduction in his overall credit score and has hurt his buying power as he continues his search for a first home.    » read more »

October 16, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) urged the Federal Reserve Friday to take a tougher approach on overdraft fees that banks impose on their customers, expressing fear that the regulator’s planned crackdown on the abusive practice won’t go far enough and adding that the Fed’s slowness to act on the issue shows the need for a new consumer watchdog agency.    » read more »

CtW report: Chamber CEO Tom Donohue has hijacked the Chamber’s agenda

October 15, 2009 --
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Preaching free enterprise, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue leads the Chamber’s attack on the financial reforms essential to restore employment and the economy. He cloaks the Chamber’s staunch opposition in the most expensive rhetoric money can buy. But Donohue’s pro-business, pro-economy and pro-jobs rhetoric notwithstanding, the Chamber’s record under his leadership is none of those things. It is pro-CEO.    » read more »

October 15, 2009

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Brad Miller (NC-D) and Rep. Dennis Moore (KS-D) filed an amendment to the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) bill today designed to generate broader support among Democrats for the financial regulation reform bill proposed to crackdown on lending practices that led to the current economic crisis.

The amendment allows banks with less than $10 billion in assets and credit unions with less than $1.5 billion in assets to be exempt from examination by a new CFPA agency in addition to federal bank regulators. The CFPA would remain the primary examiner for consumer protection rules for 150 banks with more than $10 billion in assets.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, DC- On the heels of a strongly-worded letter to the CitiGroup CEO requesting major credit card companies, including Citigroup, avoid changing credit card account terms before federal regulations on the industry take effect early next year, U.S. Congressman John Boccieri (D-Alliance) today with 17 of his House colleagues sent a letter to the Chief Executive Officer of Wells Fargo bank, calling on him to reverse his bank's recent decision to suddenly increase rates on their customers by 3 percent, and join other credit card companies who have pledged to not increase rates in advance of the effective date of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (Credit CARD Act).    » read more »