We are now full-on into the mad rush of the busiest shopping season of the year and retail sales are expected to reach a record breaking $75 billion just from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. But can we really afford all of these purchases? Or are we being lured into an endless credit card debt trap that will take the rest of the year — or longer — to pay off the interest and fees and charges?
Today, the Justice Department released a new approach to bank merger enforcement that brings the woefully outdated bank merger guidelines into the 21st century. The Justice Department announced that it would apply the greatly improved overall merger guidelines, which were released in 2023, to bank mergers as well. The bank merger rules that are currently in place date from the era of dial-up modems and are totally insufficient to address the complex market power issues posed by many proposed bank mergers — including the pending Capital One-Discover merger.
AFREF joined a comment letter that strongly supports the CFPB’s proposed safe harbor of $8 for credit card late fees. The CFPB provided ample evidence that this amount is fair, reasonable, and proportional to the costs incurred by issuers for late payments.