On January 24, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it is seeking public comment on how the consumer credit market is functioning as part of its biennial review required by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act). The CFPB will be accepting comments until April 24.
The CARD Act directs the CFPB to undertake a comprehensive review of the credit card industry to determine whether regulatory adjustments are needed. While public comment is not required for the review, the CFPB has specifically requested feedback on the following topics,
- Terms of credit card agreements;
- How have the substantive terms and conditions of agreements changed over the past two years?
- Effectiveness of disclosures;
- How effective are current disclosures of rates, fees, and other costs in conveying to consumers the costs of credit card plans?
- Adequacy of protections against unfair or deceptive acts;
- What unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts exist in the credit card market and how prevalent are they?
- Cost and availability of consumer credit cards;
- How have the costs and availability of credit cards changed over the past two years?
- Use of risk-based pricing;
- How have the CARD Act provisions related to risk-based pricing impacted the industry?
- Product innovation;
- How have broader innovations in finance (like rewards redemptions for cryptocurrency and environmental causes) and evolving digital tools impacted the credit card industry?
This request for public comment comes on the heels of the issuance of the CFPB’s 2022 Fall Rulemaking Agenda, discussed here, where the CFPB indicated it was considering whether to propose amendments to the CARD Act relating to late payment fees levied by credit card issuers.
Troutman Pepper will continue to monitor important developments involving the CFPB and the CARD Act and will provide further updates as they become available.