CFPB TO EXAMINE CREDIT CARD RATES, FEES

In a January 2021 blog post, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it would begin examining credit card rates and fees to ensure there is “robust and fair competition” in the credit card market. To accomplish this goal, the CFPB will focus on three areas in particular: Industry-wide practices – The CFPB argues that the credit card market, while large, has a small number of major players whose parallel shifts in business can make it more difficult for issuers to offer competitive pricing to consumers. As an example, the Bureau points to the industry practice of withholding account performance information that issuers may previously have reported to the credit bureaus, making it difficult for other issuers to offer competitive pricing to consumers. The CFPB intends to examine such practices with an eye toward their effect on fair competition. Read More