Banks react after Trump calls for a 10% cap on credit card interest

President Trump posted on social media calling for a one-year, 10 percent cap on credit card interest rates, touching off alarm among banks and lenders that the move would hit a major profit source. The industry has been “in a tizzy,” and shares of card-heavy banks have fallen this week — Capital One is down about 7 percent and Citi nearly 8 percent since the post, the outlet said.

Legal and financial experts say there is no obvious path for the administration to unilaterally impose a cap and that a federal credit‑card interest limit would almost certainly require action by Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson expressed skepticism, and although Senators Bernie Sanders and Josh Hawley introduced a bill last year to cap fees at 10 percent, that legislation stalled.

Mr. Trump could try an executive order, but it would likely prompt lawsuits, and under the Dodd‑Frank Act the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is prohibited from establishing “usury limits” without Congress. Analysts and researchers outlined how large the stakes would be. U.S.

credit card debt exceeds $1.21 trillion, average rates reached about 22 percent in November, and researchers at Vanderbilt estimated consumers could save roughly $100 billion a year — about $899 per person — if rates fell to 10 percent.

Key Topics

Business, Banks, Donald Trump, Capital One, Dodd-frank Act, Cfpb