Sen. Warren Pushes Bank Regulators to Enforce Trump’s Rate Cap

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote a letter to bank regulators asking if they plan to enforce a temporary 10% cap on credit card interest rates that President Donald Trump called for in January, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (April 28).

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    Warren sent her letter Monday (April 27) to officials at the Federal ReserveOffice of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and requested a response by May 11, according to the report.

    In the letter, Warren criticized the regulators for having “done nothing” to enforce the cap at a time when credit card interest rates average about 21%, the report said.

    A spokesperson for the Fed told Bloomberg that the agency received the letter but didn’t comment on its contents, per the report.

    Trump called for a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates in a Jan. 9 post on Truth Social.

    “Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be ‘ripped off’ by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration,” Trump wrote in his post. “AFFORDABILITY!”

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    Trump said his call for lower rates was “effective January 20,” which was the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.

    A week after the post, on Jan. 16, it was reported that the White House was considering executive action to implement a 10% cap on credit card interest rates.

    White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time that the president expected companies to reduce their rates by Jan. 20, framing it as a “demand” from Trump.

    It was reported Jan. 23 that Warren said: “I spoke with President Trump last week and told him that Congress could pass legislation to cap credit card rates, if he would fight for it.”

    Warren wrote this in a letter to Russell Vought, acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), in which the senator argued that the regulator had eliminated a rule limiting credit card late fees, sided with lenders in litigation involving deceptive practices and put enforcement actions against the industry on hold.