>Some of America’s top bankers are warning that the president’s cap on credit card interest rates would prove disastrous for lower-income consumers and the US economy — not to mention their profits.
>Faced with President Trump’s proposal to slash their credit card interest rate fee income days before reporting fourth quarter earnings, senior executives for the nation’s four largest banks — JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), and Wells Fargo (WFC) — all said they agree that affordability is an issue, but that limiting credit card interest rates isn’t the right approach to solve it.
>“An interest rate cap is not something that we would or could support, frankly,” Citigroup’s outgoing CFO Mark Mason said Wednesday during a call with reporters.
>Such a move would “likely result in a significant slowdown in the economy,” Mason said, adding that “affordability is clearly an important issue and one that we look forward to collaborating with the administration on.”
>“We’re all in for affordability,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told analysts on Wednesday while presenting the argument why limiting credit card interest rates would have adverse effects.
>“If you bring the caps down, you’re going to get restricted credit, meaning less people will get credit cards, and the balance available to them on those credit cards will also be restricted. And so you have to balance that against what you’re trying to achieve on affordability,” Moynihan said.
Of course banks don’t want this. But their point is valid – it doesn’t simply lower rates, it restricts credit. This forces a borrower to usually worse options like payday or car title loans, or good ol fashioned loan sharks.
turb0_encapsulator on
what is Trump’s real goal here?
1. to just say something and then complain when he can’t do anything, all while being well aware that this is a federalism issue and that state’s like Delaware and South Dakota effectively control the maximum interest rate that national banks can charge.
2. to allow payday lenders and perhaps some kind of crypto products to fill the void, likely sold by insiders including his family.
3. use this as leverage to bleed personal favors out of major banks, perhaps related to gaining control over the Federal Reserve
grim1757 on
what a joke, Citi’s adjusted gross net income for 2025 was over 16 BILLION dollars but oh noooooo we cant affod to lower interest rates without going bankrupt …. whine whine. I have 2 words for you but one of em will get me banned!
4 Comments
>Some of America’s top bankers are warning that the president’s cap on credit card interest rates would prove disastrous for lower-income consumers and the US economy — not to mention their profits.
>Faced with President Trump’s proposal to slash their credit card interest rate fee income days before reporting fourth quarter earnings, senior executives for the nation’s four largest banks — JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), and Wells Fargo (WFC) — all said they agree that affordability is an issue, but that limiting credit card interest rates isn’t the right approach to solve it.
>“An interest rate cap is not something that we would or could support, frankly,” Citigroup’s outgoing CFO Mark Mason said Wednesday during a call with reporters.
>Such a move would “likely result in a significant slowdown in the economy,” Mason said, adding that “affordability is clearly an important issue and one that we look forward to collaborating with the administration on.”
>“We’re all in for affordability,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told analysts on Wednesday while presenting the argument why limiting credit card interest rates would have adverse effects.
>“If you bring the caps down, you’re going to get restricted credit, meaning less people will get credit cards, and the balance available to them on those credit cards will also be restricted. And so you have to balance that against what you’re trying to achieve on affordability,” Moynihan said.
[[Source]](https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/big-banks-push-back-on-trumps-credit-card-cap-warning-of-significant-economic-slowdown-165046195.html)
Of course banks don’t want this. But their point is valid – it doesn’t simply lower rates, it restricts credit. This forces a borrower to usually worse options like payday or car title loans, or good ol fashioned loan sharks.
what is Trump’s real goal here?
1. to just say something and then complain when he can’t do anything, all while being well aware that this is a federalism issue and that state’s like Delaware and South Dakota effectively control the maximum interest rate that national banks can charge.
2. to allow payday lenders and perhaps some kind of crypto products to fill the void, likely sold by insiders including his family.
3. use this as leverage to bleed personal favors out of major banks, perhaps related to gaining control over the Federal Reserve
what a joke, Citi’s adjusted gross net income for 2025 was over 16 BILLION dollars but oh noooooo we cant affod to lower interest rates without going bankrupt …. whine whine. I have 2 words for you but one of em will get me banned!