Donald Trump credit card cap sends Barclays shares tumbling
Barclays shares were the worst performing on the FTSE 100 on Monday morning after fears over fresh plans by Donald Trump to curb credit card costs sent the stock tumbling.
The bank’s shares, which had risen by around 80 per cent over the past year, suffered a 5 per cent slump to 462p in early trade as investors braced for a hit to the performance of its US consumer arm.
Over the weekend, US president Donald Trump unveiled plans to cap credit card interest rates at 10 per cent, well below the current rate charged to most US consumers, in a bid to help them save money.
“Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be ‘ripped off’ by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The cap would be imposed on 20 January, Trump said, and would last for a period of 12 months. He did not give any further detail on how the cap would be implemented.
“Coincidentally, the January 20th date will coincide with the one year anniversary of the historic and very successful Trump Administration,” Trump added.
London-based Barclays is one of the biggest players in the US credit card market and is thought to account for around one in 30 of all credit cards issued there.
The firm’s US consumer bank has more than 20m customers and has credit card partnerships with a number of third parties including Chevrolet owner General Motors and Breeze Airways.
Barclays generated £3.3bn of income from its US consumer bank arm in 2024, of which £2.7bn came from net interest income as well as £667m from fees and commissions. A large chunk of this money is likely to come from the interest collected on credit cards.
Move could be ‘a mistake’
Banks such as Barclays could cushion the blow of a hit from a cut in interest rates by raising fees and reducing rewards offered to existing customers.
The move, which requires approval from lawmakers, has attracted fierce opposition from banking groups and there is no certainty of its being implemented.
Reacting to the announcement, billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump supporter Bill Ackman posted a tweet that called Trump’s announcement “a mistake” and warned that credit card lenders could cancel consumer cards if they couldn’t charge rates “adequate enough to cover losses and to earn an adequate return on equity”.
Ackman later deleted the tweet.