August 26, 2010
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News: What Has Visa Been Spending Millions On?
We have heard a lot about the plight of the credit card companies as profits fall in the wake of high card defaults. The new Credit CARD Act 2009 will not make it any easier for the financial industry to make a killing off cardholders either. One can't help but wonder just what the credit card companies and networks have done to cut spending and adjust their own company budgets. In looking at some of their expenditures, it doesn't appear they have done much to promote their own financial health. It was recently learned that Visa, the largest credit card network dished out over one and a half million dollars on lobbying alone during the 2010 second quarter against the credit card regulations and other issues during.
Visa's second quarter lobbying expense wasn't the first time the credit card industry leader spent a fortune on what some may consider wasteful lobbying, the cost was a 14 percent increase over the previous second quarter lobbying expenditure of $1.34 million and a whopping 37 percent increase over the $1.12 million dished out during this year's first quarter. All of it was to fight against the inevitable new credit card reform legislation that was signed into law by President Obama in May, 2009. The new law is aimed limiting lenders ability to impose unfair interest rate hikes and penalties.
In addition to its protests against the new credit card legislation, Visa also lobbied against the proposed new legislation that limits banks abilities to impose high overdraft fees which also has been approved by U.S. lawmakers. There were a few issues that Visa lobbied for during April through June of this year. The company fought for such efforts as cyber security, personal data privacy and protection, and the tax code which have been deemed worthily of the time and money.