White House to Put Credit-Card Rates in Cross Hairs

By AMY SCHATZ
Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will soon turn his attention to high credit-card rates, giving a potential boost to congressional efforts to put limits on the industry.

The president is "going to be very focused, in a very near term, on a whole set of issues having to do with credit-card abuses," White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. He said abuses include charging consumers "extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into."

Mr. Summers is scheduled to meet with the heads of several of the largest U.S. credit-card issuers at the White House on Thursday.

Democratic lawmakers have already begun advancing legislation to curb certain credit-card fees and other practices. It is unclear whether, or how, the White House's efforts might differ from the measures being pushed by Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York and Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.

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