(May 2, 2008) Representatives of national consumer organizations today applauded federal banking regulators for proposing initial rules to curb some abusive credit card lending practices. The groups also called on Congress to provide additional consumer protections not proposed by the regulators. The proposal was offered today by the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration. Among other things, the regulators could stop many unjustified interest rate hikes on existing balances, prohibit the charging of interest on debt already paid off and require issuers to allocate cardholder payments more fairly.  Read more (PDF).