U.S. bank shares tumble as Trump slams credit card rates
Shares in banks with credit card businesses slumped in U.S. pre-market hours after President Donald Trump said that lenders would be breaking the law if they don’t heed his call to cap interest rates on the cards at 10% for one year.
The comments increase the political pressure on a slew of card issuers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Capital One Financial Corp. and Citigroup Inc. Card interest rates - hovering above 20% in recent years - have become a target of US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with bills popping up and meeting stiff resistance from the industry.
Mike Mayo, an analyst at Wells Fargo & Co., said in a note that “new potential card cap could wipe out earnings from cards for a year.” JPMorgan analyst Vivek Juneja flagged a “material hit” if this is enacted and “could push consumers into more expensive debt.”
In pre-market trading in New York, Capital One plunged 9.7%, while American Express Co. fell 4.6%. Major US lenders were also trending lower with Citigroup declining 4.1%, JPMorgan down 2.8% and Wells Fargo slipping 2.2%.
Barclays Plc, the British lender that has credit cards as a key part of its U.S. consumer banking business, slumped as much as 4.8% in London trading on Monday, the biggest intraday loss since Oct. 17.
Trump, speaking Sunday to reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida, doubled down on his demand that card issuers lower interest rates to 10% and keep them there for one year. He set a Jan. 20 deadline for compliance.
If the rates have not been capped by then, Trump said, “then they’re in violation of the law. Some of them are charging 28, almost 30%. People don’t know they’re paying 30%. They’re working and have no idea they’re paying 30%.”
There could be a few winners as well. Wells Fargo’s Mayo said that if general availability of traditional credit card loans is reduced due to rate caps, the attractiveness of buy now, pay later firms such as Klarna Group Plc and Affirm Holdings Inc. could increase.
Shares of Klarna and Affirm surged 5.9% and 3.9%, respectively, in pre-market trading.
Barclays offers co-branded, small business and private label credit cards in the US. Its unit has around 20 million American consumers as customers and has been growing its credit-card business in the US in recent years, including through acquiring a General Motors co-branded cards portfolio and wresting away Gap Inc.’s portfolio from Synchrony Financial.
A representative for Barclays declined to comment.