[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5138 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5138

To amend the Truth in Lending Act to establish an equitable ceiling on 
          credit card interest rates, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 23, 2004

   Mr. Bell introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Truth in Lending Act to establish an equitable ceiling on 
          credit card interest rates, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fair Credit Card Interest Rate 
Act''.

SEC. 2. CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATE CEILING.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 1 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 
1601 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 109 the following 
new section:
``Sec. 110. Limitations on credit card interest rates
    ``(a) In General.--During any calendar quarter, no creditor may 
impose a finance charge under any open end consumer credit plan 
involving a credit card which results in an annual percentage rate 
greater than 10 percentage points over the most recent composite prime 
rate published in the Wall Street Journal before the beginning of the 
10-business-day period ending on the first day of such calendar 
quarter.
    ``(b) Regulations by Board.--The Board may prescribe such 
regulations as the Board may, in the discretion of the Board, determine 
to be appropriate to implement and carry out the requirements of 
subsection (a), including the determination and publication of the 
applicable maximum annual percentage rate under such subsection for any 
calendar quarter.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 1 of the 
Truth in Lending Act is amended by inserting after the item relating to 
section 109 the following new item:

``110. Limitation on credit card interest rates.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply with respect to calendar quarters that begin after the end of the 
6-month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>