State of California Agrees to Dismiss Credit Card Disclosure Suit

WASHINGTON-The state of California has agreed to dismiss the pending credit card disclosure case with prejudice, effectively making the law non-existent, according to CUNA General Counsel Eric Richard. The credit union trade associations and others had filed suit in California to reverse a law that would have required financial institutions to disclose to members how long it would take to pay off a hypothetical debt making only the minimum payments for members who have done so for the last six months. Additionally, credit card providers would have had to provide customized pay-off information for certain members and operate a call center during certain hours based on Pacific time. The plaintiffs claimed these were all costly, undue burdens. “In effect this means the California law is wiped off the books and credit unions will not have to incur the compliance costs that we were so concerned about,” Richard said. Though the court has not formally accepted the motions for dismissal from the state and the plaintiffs, he said it would be unusual for the judge to reject it.