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Comments on the impact of the Credit CARD Act on consumers and the credit card industry are sought through a public inquiry launched Wednesday by the CFPB.

The 2009 statute was intended to end unilateral changes in credit-card account rates and terms without proper notice to consumers. "With today's inquiry, the Bureau is seeking to understand how the credit card market is working in practice and how the CARD Act changes have affected consumers and credit card issuers," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in an announcement.

The CFPB held a conference in February 2011 on the CARD Act's impact on the marketplace after the first year that most provisions were in place. The CFPB says it found that the CARD Act had largely curtailed the long-standing practice of hiking interest rates on existing cardholder accounts and that it had substantially reduced consumer late fees and nearly eliminated over-limit fees.

The Credit CARD Act requires that the CFPB conduct a review of the consumer credit market. The bureau, through its request for information,is seeking public comment from consumers, credit card issuers, industry analysts, consumer advocates and others on numerous issues, including:

• how terms of credit card agreements and practices of credit card issuers may have changed since the law took effect;
• the success of protections against unfair or deceptive acts or practices;
• changes in the cost and availability of credit;
• use of risk-based pricing.

The review will be followed by a publicly available report to Congress on the state of the consumer credit card market. Findings will be used in future policy decisions.

Comments on the request for information will be due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

• Notice for Federal Register
• CFPB announcement