George S. May Business Blog

Federal Reserve pushing for new stricter regulations on gift cards

The Federal Reserve is taking more and more steps to protect consumers; it’s latest dealing with retail gift cards.

Today the Federal Reserve put forward a plan to limit fees and extend the expiration date for many different gift cards across the country.

“The rules would protect consumers from certain unexpected costs and would require that gift card terms and conditions be clearly stated,” said the Federal Reserve in a statement.

One would think that the timing of the move has to do with the fact that Black Friday and Christmas are approaching, however, many are speculating that the rules wouldn’t go into effect until around June of next year.

As senators on Capitol Hill continue to push to strip the Fed of its consumer protection role, thereby handing the power over to a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, look for the Federal Reserve to continue to put legislation like this one into play.  Last week, the Fed proposed restricting overdraft fees on ATM cards.

Related posts:

1. Federal Reserve says Economy on Upswing This week the Federal Reserve announced that the U.S. economy had gained strength in all of the central bank’s 12 regions for the first time...


2. Federal Reserve sees a light at the end of the tunnel — will continue to hold down rates Even the Fed is admitting that our economy is in recovery mode. In a recent statement, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee said that...


3. Federal Reserve rakes in record profit margin The Federal Reserve announced that despite the fact the United States experienced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression,they still managed to pull in a record...


4. CARD Act Increases Honesty in Credit Cards In 2009 a federal crackdown on some of the most outwardly abusive practices of credit card companies exposed people to a world of ways in...


5. FCC Can’t Enforce Net Neutrality Says Federal Court A federal court threw the future of Internet regulations into doubt Tuesday with a far-reaching decision that went against the Federal Communications Commission and could...