You might have guessed that I don’t have a ton of respect for our nation’s regulatory apparatus, particularly in the finance space. Too often regulators listen to their Wall Street friends over the nuances of the law, are slow to identify abuses and slower still to crack down on them, and when they finally get around to accountability measures, give the lightest slaps on the wrist possible. This makes sense for them, as they wouldn’t want to upset their future employers with rules and regulations and enforcement actions that cut into their profits. The common phrase used is “regulatory capture” – at this point, I’m not sure they have to be captured. Everybody knows the deal.

Considering how banks got away with submitting false documents to state courts on mortgage and foreclosure issues, why should we be surprised that they brought the same eye for detail to credit card debt collection? A Times article exposes how the companies are getting away with foreclosure-like fraud.

The amendment to the Dodd-Frank legislation reducing the cost of interchange fees for debit and credit cards passed with a supermajority in the Senate. It went through the normal process and it won. Now the banks, in a slightly stronger position than during the Dodd-Frank debate, are trying to get the changes delayed, and effectively killed. They’re using a silly argument that this will result in higher costs for consumers. They have the ability to control those costs.

The Federal Reserve issued rules that would cut debit fees significantly, fulfilling the promise of Dodd-Frank that these interchange fees would get reduced. This provides a boost to retailers and ultimately consumers and employees, who would see lower prices and reduced pressure to cost-cut. It really impacts the credit card industry, who has been making lots of money off of these debit card fees, even though the transaction for the back costs next to nothing.

If the federal government is finally catching up to some of the ways in which the credit card companies prey on customers and muscle out competition, they’ll have to look at what the industry is doing on college campuses, which is one step ahead of them.