In an article titled "With Support, Congress Seizes on Credit Cards", Carl Hulse writes for the New York Times how it seems like Congress is fed up with the actions of the credit card industry - and how "lawmakers are racing to put new restrictions on card companies, seizing on an issue with overwhelming popular and political appeal."

Hulse quotes Edward L. Yingling, president of the American Bankers Association, as saying that “the industry recognizes that the product got way too complicated, and people didn’t understand it and perceived they were being treated unfairly.” Polls indicate near universal consumer support for imposing new rules on the credit card issuers.

In a press release, the National Small Business Association has urged that "the Senate to approve the Landrieu-Snowe Amendment to the Credit CARD Act of 2009 (H.R. 627/S. 414) in order to guarantee that small-business owners are fully protected by the critical safeguards included in the bill. Small business reliance on credit cards is at an all-time high with 59 percent of respondents to the recent NSBA Small Business Credit Card Survey (NSBA Survey) using credit cards to finance their business--up from 49 percent just four months ago." READ MORE »

In an article titled "New Fees for Card Usage Abroad", Jane Kim writes for the Wall St. Journal about fee increases that credit card issuers are imposing on purchase transactions made while traveling abroad. She notes that American Express recently increased its fee from 2% to 2.7% and that Discover has just begun charging a 2% fee. Some issuers have also begun charging fees on purchases even when made in US dollars at overseas merchants. Kim notes that Capital One and Charles Schwab are two issuers that are not currently charging any fees on overseas purchases.

In an article titled "Credit Card Holders Have Rights, Too", Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney writes for The Nation about the legislation she introduced, the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, which passed the House a few weeks ago.

She writes that "The Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights would also be better than the regulators' rules [referring to Federal Reserve rules due to take effect in July 2010] simply by virtue of being in statute--with the full force of law--changeable only by the courts or future legislation, and immune to the pressures of any future administration which might prefer more lax enforcement and oversight of the credit card industry."

The Center for Responsible Lending has announced recent findings from a Research Brief by Joshua M. Frank, senior researcher, regarding US credit card issuer behavior.

According to the report, "We took a quick sampling of credit card issuers' recent activities to see how they have responded to the Federal Reserve rule changes that were announced in December 2008 but won't take effect until July 2010. We found the top eight issuers, who account for 80 percent of credit card balances, are raising interest rates on a larger portion of customers than usual and increasing the number of fees they impose. The new Fed rule will ban some but not all of these activities."(i) READ MORE »

India's ICICI Bank and Visa have announced a strategic relationship that will enable ICICI’s New York Branch to issue Visa Debit cards in the U.S. The bank will offer Visa Debit cards to its Global Indian Account and other checking account customers at its New York branch. The Global Indian Account service addresses the banking needs of Indians moving overseas who require access to local banking facilities in the United States. READ MORE »

Late yesterday, Advanta announced that, due to the negative performance of its securitized credit card portfolio, it was taking steps to "designed to dramatically limit the Company’s credit loss exposure and maximize its capital and its liquidity measures." One of those steps involves shutting down all of its small business credit cards to future use as of June 10. Beginning on that date, Advanta's credit card customers would not be able to make new purchases using their Advanta-issued credit cards.

See also this front page article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer by Harold Brubaker.

• Gizmodo: Card Skimmers Yield Over $2M to Thieves in NY
• CreditCards.com: Advanta's credit shutdown could endanger cardholders
• Credit & Collections World: Tighter Rules Concern Payment Execs
• Payments Industry Regulation Blog - Broox Peterson, Esq.: What Will Be the Impact of the Credit Card Reform Legislation?
• TechCrunch: Facebook Payment Platform To Enter Testing Soon. Only 7 Months Late.
• SC Magazine UK: Mobile phone technology developed to cut down credit card fraud
• Las Vegas Review-Journal: Reid: Credit card reform under way