President Obama in an interview Monday with ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos was asked if he would attempt to undo the rash of new consumer charges being implemented by banks post-Durbin.
“What the banks are saying is– that ‘Rather than take a little bit less of a profit. Rather than paying multimillion dollar bonuses. Let’s treat our customers right.’ And this is exactly why we need this Consumer Finance Protection Bureau that we set up that is ready to go,” the president responded.
Obama added he wishes FIs will realize that increasing consumer fees is “not good practice.”
In response to the interview, American Bankers Association CEO Frank Keating countered, “it’s disappointing and puzzling that the president would attack a private corporation for responding to price fixing that has fundamentally altered the economics of offering a debit card… As a direct result of the Durbin Amendment, consumers have started paying for financial services they previously enjoyed free of charge. Unfortunately, this proves that whenever government tries to control pricing of a product or service, consumers lose.”
President Obama’s comments on FIs’ post-Durbin charges, including Bank of America’s planned $5 monthly debit usage fee, begin at 1:42 in the video below:
