Stimulus.org - NCUA

Enhanced Consumer Protection for Credit Cards

Maya MacGuineas — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:04:40 +0000

Date:

December 18, 2008

Who:

Fed

Who:

NCUA

Who:

Treasury

Policy Area:

Financial Sector Policy

Economic Target:

Consumers

Economic Target:

Financial Institutions

Action Type:

Regulatory Change

Maximum Amount Special Symbol:

Amount Spent Special Symbol:

Deficit Impact Special Symbol:

New credit card regulations adopted under the Federal Trade Commission Act, in coordination with similar sets of new rules adopted by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration.

The new regulations, as described on the Federal Reserve's website:

"Protect consumers from unexpected interest charges, including increases in the rate during the first year after account opening and increases in the rate charged on pre-existing credit card balances.
Forbid banks from imposing interest charges using the "two-cycle" billing method.
Require that consumers receive a reasonable amount of time to make their credit card payments.
Prohibit the use of payment allocation methods that unfairly maximize interest charges.
Address subprime credit cards by limiting the fees that reduce the amount of available credit."

Source:

Federal Reserve Announcement 12/18/2008

Details of New Rules

Notes:

Associated costs, if any, are unknown.

Is not a top-level node

Credit Union Guarantee Program

suggp — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:21:40 +0000

Date:

October 16, 2008

Who:

NCUA

Policy Area:

Financial Sector Policy

Economic Target:

Financial Institutions

Action Type:

Government Guarantee

Maximum Amount Special Symbol:

Amount Spent Special Symbol:

Deficit Impact Special Symbol:

Establishment of Temporary Corporate Credit Union Liquidity Guarantee Program, which guarantees debt obligations for eligible corporate credit unions for up to 100% of their maximum secured debt as of September 30, 2008.

Source:

Corporate Credit Union Guidance Letter No. 2008-02

Notes:

NCUA is the National Credit Union Administration. Fiscal implications unknown.

Deficit impact unknown.

Is not a top-level node

Credit Union Rescues

suggp — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:35:15 +0000

Who:

NCUA

Maximum Amount:

99000000000

Amount Spent:

12000000000

Deficit Impact:

5900000000

Most of the government's intervention in the credit union sector have been related to corporate credit unions. Corporate credit unions do not directly serve customers, but rather play a supporting role for their membership of retail credit unions. In addition to the federal government's enhanced role in bank activity, the financial crisis forced the state to become involved in credit union action as well. In order to begin stabilizing the credit unions, the government created a loan program from the National Credit Union Administration's Central Liquidity Facility designed to subsidize funding to help credit unions modify mortgages and to facilitate lending by financing corporate credit unions. Next, the NCUA's National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund provided $1 billion to the U.S. Central Federal Credit Union in order to cover losses on mortgage and asset-backed securities. Then, in March of 2009, the NCUA took over two federal credit unions, US Central and Western Corporate in order to stabilize the corporate credit union system and resolve balance sheet issues.

Is a top-level node