Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) finalized rule to cut excessive credit card late fees, and reduce the typical fee from $32 to $8. The CFPB has long been supported by Congresswoman Waters and is the only federal agency dedicated to protecting consumers from a wide range of unfair, deceptive, and abusive products and practices provided by financial institutions, including payday lenders and big banks.

“I applaud the CFPB under the leadership of Director Rohit Chopra for carrying out yet another major action to protect consumers from billions of dollars in junk fees by finalizing this critical rule to slash credit card late fees. For far too long, greedy credit card companies have gotten away with exploiting consumers and collecting exorbitant late fees from families who are living paycheck-to-paycheck and already struggling to stay afloat. The CFPB’s final rule will put an end to this type of reckless price gouging by finally putting money back in consumers’ pockets. In fact, with this new rule, American individuals and families will save more than $10 billion in late fees annually. This will be an average savings of $220 every year for the more than 45 million people who are charged these late fees.

I am also pleased to hear that the Biden Administration is working on even more actions to crack down on junk fees, including establishing an interagency Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing led by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to combat harmful and anticompetitive pricing practices in a variety of areas, like housing and financial services. These latest moves are clear signs that under the Biden Administration, our nation’s consumers, small businesses, and economy are all better off.”

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