Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve action does not stop significant overdraft loan abuses; FAIR Act is needed to provide comprehensive consumer protections.

November 17, 2009 -- Washington, DC -- The Consumer Federation of America today urged the Senate to protect consumers from unauthorized and extremely expensive overdraft loans. Jean Ann Fox, Director of Financial Services for the Consumer Federation of America testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the need for Congress to pass the FAIR Overdraft Coverage Act, S. 1799, to rein in overdraft loan abuses.    » read more »

Good First Step But More Protections Are Needed; CFA Calls On Congress to pass the Overdraft Protection Act of 2009 to limit these abusive fees.

November 12, 2009 -- Washington, DC --- Consumer Federation of America (CFA) applauds the final overdraft rule issued today by the Federal Reserve Board as an important first step toward protecting consumers from abusive overdraft lending. The Reg E rule requires banks to get affirmative consent from consumers before charging fees on debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals that overdraw consumers’ bank accounts.    » read more »

12 November 2009 -- CHICAGO -- Today, Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) issued the following statement after the Federal Reserve announced it will prohibit banks from charging overdraft fees on ATM and debit card transactions without a customer’s permission.

“The financial misfortune of the past year has taught Washington a valuable lesson, that we must do a better job protecting consumers. As we continue to recover from the irresponsibility, greed and opaque practices of Wall Street, reforming overdraft fees further shifts the balance of power away from banks and back to Main Street.    » read more »

November 12, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – In response to today's news that the Federal Reserve will take the initial step of instituting new rules restricting overdraft fees on debit cards, U.S. Representative Kendrick B. Meek today called for a full curb on excessive and unfair bank overdraft fees.

"This is a great first step to ensure consumer protection, but Congress can move further on this pocketbook issue," said Congressman Meek.    » read more »

November 12, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) today offered this statement on changes to debit-card overdraft rules announced by the Federal Reserve today:

“I'm glad that the Federal Reserve has recognized the need to address outrageous overdraft policies by requiring a strong affirmative opt-in to debit-card overdraft plans, and I commend Chairman Bernanke for taking the regulators in this direction. The Fed’s rule is an endorsement of the need for more overdraft protection for consumers.    » read more »

Supports Tough New Rules on Banks

November 13, 2009 -- Washington, DC -- Congressman Paul Hodes today announced his support for new rules that would ban banks from charging many overdraft fees to customers without first getting the customer’s consent. The Federal Reserve announced the new rules aimed at protecting consumers from banks who earned $37 billion in overdraft fees alone last year. However, Congressman Hodes supports stricter rules to provide even more support to consumers who have fallen victim to Wall Street banks’ practices.    » read more »

Fed Will Require Customers’ Permission Before Banks Can Charge Overdraft Fees

November 12, 2009 -- Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) welcomed today’s release of a new Federal Reserve rule that will require banks to get a customer’s consent before enrolling them in an overdraft coverage program. Banks use these programs allow customers to overdraw their accounts without their knowledge, and then slap them with fees of upwards of $30 for this “courtesy.”    » read more »

Washington, DC - 10/28/2009 - One hundred percent of credit cards offered online by the leading bank card issuers continue to include practices that will be outlawed once legislation passed in May takes effect next year, according to a new report by the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project. The report also found that advertised credit card interest rates rose an average of 20 percent in the first two quarters of 2009, even as banks’ cost of lending declined.

With the Federal Reserve currently developing rules to ensure penalty charges are “reasonable and proportional” as required under the Credit CARD Act, the report also includes policy recommendations for regulators.    » read more »

October 16, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) urged the Federal Reserve Friday to take a tougher approach on overdraft fees that banks impose on their customers, expressing fear that the regulator’s planned crackdown on the abusive practice won’t go far enough and adding that the Fed’s slowness to act on the issue shows the need for a new consumer watchdog agency.    » read more »

October 6, 2009 -- WASHINGTON — Four Members of Congress who played key roles in enactment of the Credit CARD Act, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., sent a letter today to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urging him to strengthen collection of credit card data to enable policymakers to monitor changing credit card practices and evaluate the impact of the new law. A copy of the letter is attached and available below.

October 6, 2009

The Honorable Ben Bernanke
Chairman
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Twentieth and Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20551

Dear Mr. Chairman:    » read more »

NEW YORK--Oct. 1, 2009-- In response to continuing confusion regarding the amount of assistance AIG has received from the government and the amount it must repay, AIG provides the following facts:

The U.S. government has provided support to AIG in several forms: direct equity investments in AIG, loans to AIG, the extension to AIG of a mostly untapped equity capital facility, access to a commercial paper funding facility1 and loans to special purpose entities formed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY). The loans to these special purpose entities are to be repaid by those entities, and not by AIG, from the proceeds of the assets owned by those entities.

The Breakdown:

LOANS TO AIG, INCLUDING INTEREST AND FEES: $38.8 billion    » read more »

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 27 -- Bank of America Corporation today said it has raised almost $26 billion in its capital plan since the stress test results were announced and is well on its way to reaching the $33.9 billion indicated Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP) buffer set by the Federal Reserve.

The company announced last week that it raised $13.5 billion through issuing 1.25 billion shares in an at-the-market common stock offering. It has also sold part of its holdings in China Construction Bank, generating a capital gain. Contributing to the capital plan, these initiatives also benefit Tier 1 common capital by $1.8 billion by reducing the deferred tax asset deduction.    » read more »

Expects to Fulfill $13.7 Billion Capital Requirement Through Earnings, Other Internally-Generated Sources and Announced Common Equity Offering; Federal Reserve, Wells Fargo agree on future loan loss assumptions

San Francisco -- May 7, 2009 -- Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) said today it is pleased that the Federal Reserve has confirmed that Wells Fargo has enough total capital even in a severe economic stress scenario.    » read more »

March 11, 2009 -- Washington D.C. -- NEIL M. BAROFSKY, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), announced today, in coordination with the Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB-OIG), the formation of a broad, multi-agency task force designed to deter, detect and investigate instances of fraud in the soon-to-be-launched Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) program.    » read more »

NEW YORK -- Mar. 15, 2009 -- American International Group, Inc. (AIG) recognizes the importance of upholding a high degree of transparency with respect to the use of public funds. As a result, after close consultation with the Federal Reserve, AIG is disclosing information identifying certain credit default swap counterparties, municipal counterparties and securities lending counterparties. Before disclosing this information, AIG consulted with the Federal Reserve about the potential public benefit of counterparty disclosure and the potential that such disclosure would cause competitive harm to AIG or its counterparties.    » read more »