Saturday, October 15, 2011

Congress Members Urge Investigation Into Bank of America Fees

Quick News: Justice Dept. urged to investigate Bank of America

Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:2PM GMT

House Democrats are taking their outrage with Bank of America’s new debit-card fees straight to the Justice Department.

Several Democratic lawmakers on Thursday demanded an investigation into whether the nation's largest banks - including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo - are coordinating efforts to raise fees for consumers, contending that would violate federal antitrust laws.

“There is clearly no problem with banks making independent business decisions based upon the landscape as they see it,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. “Antitrust issues are raised, however, if they are attempting to facilitate group decisions on their prices, terms and conditions.”

Though they conceded that they had no specific evidence that banks were colluding, the lawmakers argued that having the Justice Department police the institutions could be enough to ward off rising prices for customers.

Politico

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