USA TODAY Editorial: When consumers got a solicitation from American Express for its Blue Sky credit card, they figured if they signed up and met the requirements, they’d get $300. That’s what the letter promised, prominently promoting a “$300 Bonus Offer.” People signed up for Blue Sky, but the bonus money vanished into thin air.
Until recently, such deception wouldn’t have gotten a peep out of Washington regulators. But there’s a new sheriff in town: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Last week, in a deal the CFPB brokered, American Express agreed to refund $85 million to a quarter million customers who had been fooled by the Blue Sky offer or harmed by other allegedly deceptive or unlawful practices.
The AmEx deal is the third in a string of recent settlements with credit card issuers that illustrate why the bureau was needed — and why it remains a favorite target of bankers and their allies in Congress, who continue trying to defang it. When American Banker, the industry’s bible, proclaimed last week: “Why the CFPB’s AmEx fine should scare bankers,” the publication was spot on. Bankers are on notice that the bureau is on the lookout for a broad range of misleading practices by the once-untouchable industry… (more)
