As the House Committee on Financial Services readies for next week's hearings to discuss new regulations for the banking industry, lobbyists lined up to battle over the changes, extending a battle between small banks, big banks and big retailers.
In a letter submitted to Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 8, the American Bankers Association said the potential changes, "will cause severe harm to the entire banking industry and, in particular, to community-based banks and the communities they serve."
The ABA's dire warning is a response to proposed regulations by the Federal Reserve on debit card and credit card fees ...
Continue readingFirms severing ties with Wikileaks have multiple interests before feds
Amazon.com, Paypal, MasterCard and Visa have ceased to do business with Wikileaks--the controversial organization that's published thousands of classified U.S. government documents. All four have spent millions of dollars lobbying the federal government on a variety of issues ranging from keeping Internet sales exempt from taxation to the regulation of credit card issuers under the Dodd Frank financial reform bill.
Lobbyists for Amazon.com, for example, have reported spending more than $20 million to influence the government since 1999, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. In the company's most recent lobbying disclosure ...
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