Banks wager they can fend off price controls

The biggest U.S. banks show no sign of capitulating to President Donald Trump’s mandate to slash credit card interest rates, setting up a confrontation just as the president is expected to take the world stage next week at Davos.

Executives at JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup warned this week that rather than offering cards at a 10% interest rate, as Trump has directed should happen by Jan. 20, the banks would simply close many customers’ accounts.

“An interest rate cap is not something that we would or could support,” Citigroup CFO Mark Mason told reporters on Wednesday.

It would “restrict access to credit to those who need it the most and frankly would have a deleterious impact on the economy,” he said.

On Tuesday, JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum indicated that the industry could defend itself in the courts if needed, saying “everything’s on the table” in terms of a response.

Trump, keen to address voters’ concerns over affordability ahead of midterm elections this year, began his broadside against banks in a late-Friday social media post by alleging that the industry was ripping off credit card borrowers. In media interviews and follow up posts, Trump has doubled down on his push and endorsed a separate bill that takes aim at the swipe fees paid by merchants.

But five days after the original threat, bankers and their lobbyists told CNBC that they have yet to receive any formal or written guidance from the Trump administration about the policy.

That gives some of them hope that the administration isn’t serious about pursuing the interest rate cap, according to industry insiders, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly.

While Trump has said banks that don’t comply on rates will be “in violation of the law,” there is currently no U.S. law capping card rates. A bill introduced last year that would cap rates at 10% for five years has stalled in Congress.

“We are legally compliant right now,” said one person with knowledge of a large card issuer’s operations.

Barring legislation, which is not likely, the industry will either dodge the caps entirely or be forced to offer concessions, similar to how Trump dealt with the pharmaceutical industry, Wolfe Research analysts led by Tobin Marcus said Tuesday in a note.

“We continue to view the drugmakers as the case study in how this kind of dealmaking-under-threat could go,” Marcus said. “In that case, Trump had enough leverage to secure some new pricing commitments, but not enough to extract truly painful commitments.”

The financial sector is keenly focused on two upcoming events for a sense of how the credit card battle will unfold, sources tell CNBC.

The first is Senate meetings this month where bills being worked on could see the addition of Trump’s rate cap or the push to limit interchange fees. But that path is murky, given that several Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have already indicated they wouldn’t support price controls on credit cards.

The other looming date is next Wednesday, the…