 "US banks may face class-action suits")
US banks and credit card companies could be prevented from blocking customers from banding together to sue them under a rule released by the country's consumer finance agency on Monday.
In releasing the rule, which goes into full effect in eight months, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fired the first shot in a likely brutal political battle between Republicans and Democrats over regulators' reach into banks' workings and customer rights.
Banks blasted the rule, which bars financial firms from forcing customers to agree to settle disputes only through arbitration as a condition of opening new accounts, but consumer advocates said it will
