Despite a written objection by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the House Financial Services Committee voted today to push up the start of sweeping credit card reform by two months, from Feb. 1 to Dec. 1.
The new start-date won’t impact credit card issuers with less than 2 million credit cards in circulation or gift-card issuers, as stated in new amendments approved by the key House panel. The amendments were a partial bow to Bernanke, who in a written statement, said that moving up the reform implementation could cause hardship to small credit issuers.
The Fed chariman said that those small companies rely on third-party vendors that are currently “overwhelmed by the demand from all of the institutions they service.”
The committee passed the measure to move up the reform date on a voice vote, over the objections of Republicans. The full House and Senate must still vote on the legislation.
The lawmakers seeking to speed up implementation cite the actions of some card companies ahead of the new laws, including the raising of interest rates, the lowering of credit limits and the cancellation of under-used accounts, even for card users with good credit.
One of the lawmakers leading the charge is Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.)
“The card companies brought this on themselves by using the time between when the bill was signed by President Obama and when it goes into effect to ‘get in under the wire’ with a last gasp of unfair practices,” Maloney said in a statement.
Maloney sponsored the legislation along with House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
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