Ahead of the Bell: Credit card industry legislation

WASHINGTON (AP) - Legislation to rein in practices of credit card companies is gaining traction in Congress as scrutiny of the industry's marketing, billing and transparency intensifies.

Two key Democrats plan to introduce a bill Wednesday that would require credit card issuers to give account holders 45 days notice of any increases in interest rates. Interest could not be charged on transaction fees such as late-payment and overlimit penalties.

The measure is sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who heads a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee that has investigated credit card industry practices. A similar bill proposed by Rep.


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Don't get caught by the mortgage drought

It's not just borrowers with fixed-rate deals who face a nasty rise in repayments - those on trackers could also be hit, says Steve Ellis

About 3m homebuyers are likely to have to remortgage in the next year – twice as many as previously thought, experts have told The Telegraph. Many could suffer "payment shock" as fixed-term deals on lower rates expire and they have to rearrange loans on tougher terms because of the credit crisis.

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Borrowers falter despite lenient laws

In other states, the Boutchee family would have been kicked out of its home within months of its lender foreclosing last August. In Iowa, state law has allowed the family to remain in the home on Des Moines' northeast side for the last nine months.

Iowa's borrower-friendly foreclosure laws have long given distressed consumers more time than most others across the country to catch up on delinquent payments. Yet the court-driven legal process is now so choked with a record number of families sinking in debt, burdened by high legal costs and complicated by mixed messages from lenders that success stories like the Boutchees' have become the exception rather than the rule, experts say.

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N.J. lawmakers taking on debt collectors

The practice of debt collection is under renewed scrutiny.

New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a bill in the Assembly that would regulate the practices of debt collectors and give authorities the power to issue significant fines for violations.

Dubbed the New Jersey Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the proposed legislation mostly mirrors a 30-year-old federal law that regulates things such as when and where debt collectors can call consumers. But it also goes further, imposing rules on creditors -- not just third-party firms that are hired by creditors or buy debt at a discount.

The bill, introduced last month and now in committee, comes during an economic period in which consumers are having a harder time paying their bills. Perhaps not surprisingly, that has meant some collection agencies are now getting more accounts to work.


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N.J. green-lights Pascack hospital sale

Pascack Valley Hospital's buyers will officially take possession of their new property today.

The state Attorney General's Office cleared the way for the deal to close.

Attorney General Anne Milgram said she had no objection to the $45 million purchase by Hackensack University Medical Center and Touro University College of Medicine.

She ruled that no public hearing or review was needed under a special state law governing the sale of hospitals, since the hospital was closed when the sale took place.

The 280-bed hospital was $80 million in debt when it closed in November. Since then, ambulances from the Pascack Valley and Northern Valley have rushed patients elsewhere, and doctors have admitted their patients to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Hackensack or Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck.


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Invacare Responds to Analysts Assessment of First Quarter Results

24/04/2008 16:35:00 Business Wire Invacare Corporation (NYSE: IVC) reiterated that its quarterly results announced earlier today were on plan for the first quarter and that the Company remains confident in its projected range for adjusted earnings per share for the year with most of the earnings attributable to the second half of the year.
In its earlier announcement, Invacare noted that, because it does not provide quarterly earnings guidance, "the investor community may project quarterly earnings that vary from management s expectations." A.
Malachi Mixon, III, Invacare s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "It appears that projections by some analysts for our first quarter, which the Company has never confirmed, have led to a sharp decline in Invacare s stock price which we do not believe is justified.


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Duncan Energy Partners Reports First Quarter 2008 Results

Duncan Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE:DEP) today announced its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2008. The partnership reported net income of $6.0 million for the first quarter of 2008, or $0.29 per common unit on a fully diluted basis.

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