CAT | Banks
Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. are the world’s biggest payment networks in the world. Today, the two entities may raise antitrust concerns if they “collude” with larger banks to block limits on debit- card interchange fees and scared off small banks into joining the opposition, according to a U.S. Senator.
Senator Richard Durbin stated, “If your companies were to coordinate such punitive actions in the same way that you appear to have coordinated your messaging tactics, serious concerns would be raised that you are engaging in an unlawful restraint of trade,” in a letter to the chief executive officers of San Francisco-based Visa and Purchase, New York-based MasterCard.
Senator Durbin is pushing legislation that empowers the Federal Reserve to impose limits on debit card interchange or “swipe” fees that merchants pay to accept the cards.
Curbing the fees, which average about 1 percent per transaction, could crimp revenue at Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. debit-card issuers.
The Senate voted 64 to 33 to approve the measure as part of the financial overhaul bill. The proposal becomes law if it survives a bipartisan panel assigned to merge the House and Senate versions of the legislation, and President Barack Obama signs it. Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat nominated to participate in the talks, said she expects changes in Durbin’s proposal, without elaborating.
Welcome to Credit Card Overcharges. Are you a victim of random and excessive fees imposed by your credit card companies. Has Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover and the banks that gave you your credit card, imposed ridiculous charges upon you.
Like all American, during these tough times, we start to pay more and more attention to our credit card statements because we have less money to waste. As we review our statements closer and closer we begin to notice charges and fees that we never realized existed.
The purpose of this website is to inform people of these overcharges. To provide a forum where we can collective provide information for each other to use to fight back. We hope that you will find your goals useful.
Washington regulators announced that five banks were closed down on May 28, 2010. Three of the banks are in Florida, One in Nevada and one in California.
That brings the total US Bank failure number to 78 this year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the Florida banks, all owned by holding company Bank of Florida Corp. They are Bank of Florida-Southeast, based in Fort Lauderdale, with $595.3 million in assets; Bank of Florida-Southwest, based in Naples, with $640.9 million in assets; and Bank of Florida-Tampa Bay, based in Tampa, with $245.2 million in assets.
The FDIC also seized Las Vegas-based Sun West Bank, with $360.7 million in assets, and Granite Community Bank, located in Granite Bay, Calif., with $102.9 million in assets.
The number of banks on the FDIC’s confidential “problem” list jumped to 775 in the first quarter from 702 three months earlier, even as the industry as a whole had its best quarter in two years.
The FDIC expects the cost of resolving failed banks to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years.
