Court does away with limit on US credit card late fees

NEW YORK: A government-imposed $8 limit on most credit card late fees is the latest consumer protection regulation to be scrapped by President Donald Trump’s administration.

- STACY COWLEY

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau adopted the fee cap last year, estimating that it would save households $10 billion a year. A coalition of banking and business trade groups immediately sued to block the rule, arguing that the bureau had exceeded its statutory authority, and won an injunction that prevented it from taking effect.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Texas vacated the fee limit at the joint request of the banks and the consumer bureau.

Now under the leadership of Russell T. Vought, the White House budget office director who is also serving as the bureau’s acting director, the consumer bureau reversed its stance and said in court filings that it agreed with the banks that the fee limit illegally stretched beyond the agency’s powers.