Congress to shine light on US credit card industry

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers will on Wednesday seek to shine a light on what some call the shady practices of large financial groups that market credit cards to Americans.
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Democrat Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on investigations, said top executives from the Bank of America, Chase Bank and Citigroup will be questioned about their credit card programs at the hearing.

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The hearing comes after an alliance of US consumer and activist groups launched a campaign Tuesday for an end to unfair lending practices it says are used by some banks, credit card companies and mortgage groups.

Americans for Fairness in Lending (AFFIL) launched its nationwide campaign to expose what it calls the "rampant abuses of consumers by the lending industry in America."

According to the Federal Reserve, revolving credit, essentially credit card debt, across the United States surged to 876.2 billion dollars in 2006, up from 826.6 billion in 2005.

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