Susan Jones
CNSnews.com
10/4/2011
President Obama suggested on Monday that the nation’s banks should “take a little bit less of a profit” rather than raise fees on customers.
In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Obama was asked if the government can stop banks from imposing a new debit card fee on their customers.
“Well, you can stop it because … if you say to the banks, ‘You don’t have some inherent right just to — you know, get a certain amount of profit if your customers are being mistreated. That you have to treat them fairly and transparently.’ And — and my hope is is that you’re going to see a bunch of the banks, who say to themselves, ‘You know what? This is actually not good business practice.’
“Banks can make money,” Obama said. “They can succeed the old-fashioned way, by earning it — by lending to small businesses, by lending to consumers. By making sure that– you know, we are building the economy together.”
Obama advocated “protections” (regulations) that Republicans want to roll back. However, as a direct result of those regulations, the nation’s major banks are considering a plan to charge customers a $5 monthly service fee for debit card transactions. A provision in the Dodd-Frank Act cut the amount banks could charge merchants for debit card swipes, so the banks may shift the burden onto consumers…
The article continues, with video, at CNSnews.com
Related: Dick Durbin slams Bank of America for… Reacting to his own law?
…The Durbin Amendment, named after Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), was added to the bill after flopping around for the better part of a year. The law applies to those big banks – the ones over $10 billion in assets – and was ostensibly passed as an effort to increase competition. It was supposed to be pro-consumer.
But here’s the kicker: the Amendment gave the Federal Reserve the power to regulate debit card interchange fees and other bits of banking admin, which they’ve done. Over the summer, the Fed released the final rule on the matter. The combination of fees, restrictions and caps is thought to cost banks subject to the amendment nearly $14 billion annually…
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