Bill offers protections: New rules for the credit card industry that are designed to protect consumers from surprise charges, such as over-the-limit fees and costs for paying a bill by phone, are part of a bill President Barack Obama is set to sign into law. Obama plans to sign today an overhaul of credit card regulations that he blames in part for the economic downturn. Despite opposition from financial companies, the bill cleared Congress with broad support. The new rules, which would go into effect in nine months, would prohibit credit card companies from giving cards to people under 21 unless they can prove they have the means to pay the debt or a parent or guardian co-signs for the card.
Will cost $4.9 billion: The federal seizure of struggling Florida thrift BankUnited FSB is expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $4.9 billion, representing the second-largest hit to the FDIC’s insurance fund since the financial crisis began felling banks last year. The costliest was last year’s seizure of California lender IndyMac Bank, on which the bank insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion. The Office of Thrift Supervision, a Treasury Department agency, said BankUnited FSB reported $1.2 billion in losses last year as defaults on loans piled up. Coral Gables, Fla.-based BankUnited FSB is the 34th federally insured institution to be closed this year, and the biggest. Florida’s largest banking institution with about $13 billion in assets as of May 2 was sold for $900 million to an investor group led by former North Fork Bancorp Chairman and CEO John Kanas. It reopened today as a newly chartered savings bank called BankUnited, with Kanas at the helm.
