The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced plans to delay the effective date of its prepaid card rule for six months, to April 1, 2018.
The CFPB's press release stated: "The CFPB’s prepaid accounts rule will provide strong consumer protections and we want the rule to become effective as soon as possible. However, through our efforts to support industry implementation, we have learned that some industry participants believe they will have difficulty complying with certain provisions of the rule by the current October 1, 2017 effective date. We believe that delaying the effective date by six months will be sufficient for industry participants to ensure they can comply with the rule. While we are not proposing to change any other part of the prepaid accounts rule at this time, we are asking the public to provide comments about any implementation challenges that may affect consumers, and how additional time will impact industry, consumers, and other stakeholders."
The prepaid card rule deals with fee disclosures, fraud protection and dispute resolution for prepaid cards. The rule is here. The CFPB published the final rule in October 2016, and it was scheduled to go into effect on October 1, 2017.
The proposal to postpone the effective date is here. Comments are due in three weeks.
