00:00Credit card companies are in the red this morning after President Trump said lenders are breaking the law if they don't cap interest rates at 10 percent for one year.
00:10Joining us with more is Bloomberg Consumer Finance reporter Paige Smith.
00:14And Paige, I won't ask you which law they're breaking because I doubt there is one.
00:20But are they going to be cowed into lowering interest rates?
00:25Thank you for having me this morning.
00:26I think that it is we are certainly in a wait and see mode to speak to your first question.
00:31I think it is fair to say that it's unclear exactly which law would be the president would be relying upon for to enforce such a statement.
00:42But it was certainly causing a lot of flurry over the weekend with credit card companies, you know, sort of scrambling, I would say, to respond to this.
00:51And the you know, the president came out with this statement late on Friday evening and bank lobbyists who are, you know, the majority of which are credit card issuers, many of which are credit card issuers, sort of came out with their own response to and it was sort of more.
01:06They struck something of a measured tone, I would say, in response to the president's statement.
01:11And then, you know, he doubled down on Air Force One last night.
01:15So it's certainly something that is top of mind for the president and something the banks will need to be mindful of ahead of bank earnings this week as well.
01:23Is it a fair assessment?
01:24I probably should have asked you this before I said it at the top of the show, because, you know, this better than anyone, certainly better than me.
01:29But if there is a cap, all it means is that the credit card companies can't price risk, so they don't take on that risk.
01:34And it means less credit available to less people.
01:38That's at least what analysts are saying at this moment in time.
01:40If this is something that is enforced, if it is something that actually comes to be.
01:45As of now, all we have are these statements from the president.
01:49And back to Matt's question in terms of how this will actually be enforced is still quite unclear.
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