Maloney Release Guidelines for Credit Card Issuers

The Chair of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit has stepped into the credit card reform fray, releasing last Friday a statement designed to help guide industry self-regulation.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney outlined her suggestions, calling them four “solid common sense principles that will help guide the shape and scope of our credit card reform legislation and self-regulation.

Describing her proposals as the “Gold Standard Credit Card Principles,” Maloney suggests that issuers determine the terms that fit individual cardholders and her ability to repay debt; clearly explain account features, terms, and pricing; provide cardholders with notice and choice when terms of the card account change; and encourage the responsible use of cards, especially by new cardholders and customers with special needs.

Maloney, a Democrat from New York, said in the statement that the “principles recognize that the modern risk-based pricing credit card system requires shared responsibility between credit card issuers and their customers.”

Maloney wrote the principals following a roundtable she convened last week with credit card issuers, consumer groups, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, and Rep. Mike Castle, a Republican from Delaware, to discuss potential credit card reforms.