NOT SO FAST

Bank Issues Warning About Trump’s New Credit Card Plot

The president demanded that banks cap interest rates on credit cards at 10 percent starting next week.

A major bank is sounding the alarm over President Trump’s push for companies to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent next week to mark the “one year anniversary” of his inauguration. Citigroup finance chief Mark Mason said the move would lead to a “significant slowdown in the economy,” Bloomberg reported. “A cap like this ultimately would cause a restraint, if you will, a restriction on providing credit in the market to those who need it most,” he told reporters. He said the bank was eager to help the Trump administration take action on improving affordability but was blunt about the limits of cooperation, saying an interest rate cap is “not something that we would, or could, support.” Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, echoed Mason’s concerns Wednesday, saying such a cap would end up restricting credit for many consumers. Trump, under fire in recent weeks over rising prices, had taken to Truth Social last week to announce the move, framing the proposed one-year cap as a win for “the American Public” that would take effect on Jan. 20, exactly one year after the start of his “very successful” return to the White House. He has offered no details on how the cap would be implemented or if it could withstand legal scrutiny. Banking industry groups have warned that a rate cap would sharply reduce access to credit, particularly for riskier borrowers.