Bankers Line Up to Meet Elizabeth Warren

[ClarkUSA]

Like President Obama, Elizabeth Warren is meeting with lots and lots of bankers to discuss administration policy! Oh no! ;)

MARCH 1, 2011, 7:17 PM INVESTMENT BANKING | LEGAL/REGULATORY
Bankers Line Up to Meet Elizabeth Warren
BY BEN PROTESS

Elizabeth Warren is highly sought after in Washington — especially among bankers.

Ms. Warren, the Harvard law professor who is setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has met this year with a range of banking industry executives, lobbyists and trade groups... In January alone, she met with nearly 50 bank executives from more than 30 different institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and PNC. On Jan. 4, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, paid her a visit. A week later, she held a meeting with community bank officials from more than a dozen states, including Kansas and New York.

Bankers are not the only industry players demanding her time. On Jan. 25, she met with Ajay Banga, the president and chief executive of MasterCard. She also met with a range of consumer advocates, including Damon Silvers, the AFL-CIO’s director of policy.

The Treasury Department disclosed the gatherings in its monthly calendar of meetings about the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law. The consumer bureau was started as part of the Treasury Department, although it eventually will become an independent arm of the Federal Reserve. The Dodd-Frank Act created the bureau to oversee consumer lenders like banks, credit card companies and mortgage firms... The calendar did reveal several Dodd-Frank discussions between top Treasury Department officials and Wall Street executives.

Neal S. Wolin, the Treasury Department’s deputy secretary, gathered with Antonio Quintella, chief executive of Credit Suisse’s Americas region. Among their topics of conversation: Dodd-Frank’s new rules for the derivatives industry.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/bankers-line-up-to-meet-elizabeth-warren

Thank you, President Obama, for appointing a staunch consumer advocate like Elizabeth Warren to protect Americans from Wall Street. Thanks to all the Democratic Senators who voted for Wall Street reform, too, and to Obama for being so adamant about making it one of his signature legislative victories.

[displacedvermoter]

1. Does that mean that credit card usury is going to go away and

the loopholes in the "Wall Street reform" are going to be closed? Are the "too big to fail" banking operations going to be dealt with finally? Oh, probably not.

And thanks to Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer and the other Dems who helped to pass watered-down reform, and thanks to the President for bringing in Bill Daley to replace Rahm (one banker stepping in for another banker).

Oh no!

[ClarkUSA]

2. All is not perfect but there has been plenty of change from what used to be the status quo.

There has been plenty of "Change" from where I stand -- just not according to you.

The very first thing that the Reform Act done was lower interest rates. In the past, credit card companies had the ability to charge outrageous interest rates and then had the leverage to increase that rate on people who had a hard time paying their credit card payments. Credit cards had to be written off due to non payment and the amassed bad credit paid a toll on the companies. They say this contributed to the credit crisis. It did, but then again the credit card companies were still giving credit to anyone and everyone knowing that they had the option of the card being written off. Lower interest rates mean that cards will be paid off and not written off.

More benefits of credit card reform:

Fees Controlled

The biggest thing about the Credit Card Reform Act that has helped consumers is that the credit card companies can no longer charge those outrageous fees. Now they have to keep the same due date each month and not change it because someone is late on their payment. Credit card companies can no longer charge fees for payments made online or over the telephone. The little outrageous fees that the credit card companies were profiting on are now eliminated.

http://www.usmoneytalk.com/finance/credit-card-reform-act-does-this-actually-do-anything-for-anybody-909/

Here are some definitive positive changes that credit card reform created for consumers:

5 Positive Aspects Of The New Credit Card Regulations:

1. No retroactive interest increases – a credit card company cannot increase the interest rate and have it apply to a pre-existing balance.
2. Limits on Fees – the fees on a yearly credit card can be no more than 25% of the initial credit limit
3. Rates Cannot be Changed for Late payments on unrelated loans. If miss payments on an unrelated consumer loan, the credit company cannot use the practice known as universal default to increase your interest rate.
4. Application of Balance – If you pay over the minimum amount on your credit card each month, the additional amount must apply the payment to the balance with the highest interest rate.
5. Timely Billing – The credit card company cannot issue a bill several days before it is due and then charge you late fees. The bill must be issued at least 21 days before you must pay the bill each month.

Other Aspects

One aspect that may impact college age consumers is that a new credit card cannot be issued to a person who is under 21 years of age. Students in college and young people who enter the military cannot be issued credit cards. This prevents them from abusing credit, but it also prevent responsible people under the age of 21 from building credit.

http://www.usmoneytalk.com/finance/credit-card-reform-act-5-positive-aspects-for-americans-904/

If you think you could have done better, then I suggest you run for Congress in 2012 on your "concerns". As it was, Wall Street and their mouthpiece, The Chamber of Commerce, spent billions trying to defeat this and failed. Start organizing instead of complaining.

[Name removed]

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[ProSense]

4. Warren and the CFPB are drawing a lot of attention

WSJ: Small Banks, Credit Unions Fear US Consumer Bureau Rules

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Small financial institutions on Wednesday told U.S. lawmakers they're struggling to comply with a slew of new regulations mandated by last year's financial overhaul, and they worry they'll be strangled further by new rules issued by the new consumer watchdog agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"This new bureaucracy--expected to hire over 1,200 new staff--will certainly impose new obligations on community banks--banks that had nothing to do with the financial crisis and already have a long history of serving consumers fairly in a competitive environment," SpiritBank Chief Executive Albert Kelly, Jr. said in written testimony. "Thus, the new legislation will result in new compliance burdens for community banks and a new regulator looking over their shoulders."

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Zach Carter: In Stealth Lobbying Move, Wall Street Coordinates With Check-Cashers, Payday Lenders To Gut CFPB

WASHINGTON -- Wall Street banks are deploying little-known lobbying organizations who represent companies like Pizza Hut and Radio Shack in a new push to hamstring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It's a tactic that bankers used repeatedly during last year's legislative debate over financial reform-- by rolling out airlines and butchers to warn about regulation, megabanks could lobby against the overhaul without tainting the public relations effort with their own unpopular brands. But now, for the first time, banks are using obscure lobby groups in order to team up with payday lenders, check-cashing agencies and other financial firms that target the poor-- and presenting the blitz as the work of a broad, non-financial business coalition.

During a Tuesday conference call organized by the Chamber, coalitions ostensibly comprised of companies outside the financial sector argued that the nascent federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will hurt their bottom lines. But while those groups, the International Franchise Association and the Manufactured Housing Institute, include payday lenders, check-cashing agencies and mortgage lenders-- exactly the kinds of firms the CFPB is designed to regulate.

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WaPo: Business group wants a director in place before consumer bureau issues rules

Republican lawmakers and financial industry lobbyists lost their fight last year to halt the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But as the new watchdog takes shape, those critics have continued to question the bureau's precise role in the regulatory universe.

The latest effort to limit the reach of the consumer bureau came Tuesday. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter urging Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner not to allow the bureau to issue new regulations if it does not have a permanent director in place by July 21, the date the bureau will officially open its doors.

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Simon Johnson: Disinformation About the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

In Washington, before lobbyists try hard to destroy something, they first spread a great deal of disinformation about it. Thus the "End Users' Coalition" (a front for the derivatives dealers) promotes its lobbying points as fake research. And "fiscal conservatives" attempt to distract from the fact that our largest banks brought us to the brink of budget disaster -- this is their preparation for demolishing all vestiges of financial reform.

On a closely related front, there is now a concerted effort to undermine the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), mostly by spreading disinformation about its supposed lack of accountability.

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[displacedvermoter]

5. Why isn't there a permanent director in place?

It is March now, and it would seem that there has been plenty of time for such an appointment.

You reckon there will be one by July 21?

[ProSense]

6. Why are you asking me? n/t

[Name removed]

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[ClarkUSA]

7. Why don't you write to every Republican in Congress and ask them that question?

After all, Republicans have refused to confirm most of President Obama's appointments.