Cite as: 517 U. S. 735 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. Section 30 of the National Bank Act of 1864, Rev. Stat. § 5197, as amended, 12 U. S. C. § 85, provides that a national bank may charge its loan customers "interest at the rate allowed by the laws of the State . . . where the bank is located." In Marquette Nat. Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp., 439 U. S. 299 (1978), we held that this provision authorizes a national bank to charge out-of-state credit-card customers an interest rate allowed by the bank's home State, even when that rate is higher than what is permitted by the States in which the cardholders reside. The question in this case is whether § 85 also authorizes a national bank to charge late-payment fees that are lawful in the bank's home State but prohibited in the States where the cardholders reside—in other words, whether the statutory term "interest" encompasses late-payment fees.
I
Petitioner, a resident of California, held two credit cards— a "Classic Card" and a "Preferred Card"—issued by respond-Sturdevant; and for the National Consumer Law Center et al. by Mark A. Chavez and Patricia Sturdevant.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the State of
Colorado et al. by Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General of Ohio, Jeffrey S. Sutton, State Solicitor, Carter G. Phillips, and James M. Harris, and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Grant Woods of Arizona, Gale A. Norton of Colorado, M. Jane Brady of Delaware, Michael J. Bowers of Georgia, Jim Ryan of Illinois, Joseph P. Mazurek of Montana, Don Stenberg of Nebraska, Frankie Sue Del Papa of Nevada, Dennis C. Vacco of New York, Thomas W. Corbett, Jr., of Pennsylvania, Mark Barnett of South Dakota, Jan Graham of Utah, and James S. Gilmore III of Virginia; for Affinity Group Marketing et al. by Theodore W. Kheel; for the American Bankers Association et al. by Shirley M. Hufstedler, L. Richard Fischer, James A. Huizinga, and W. Stephen Smith; for Greenwood Trust Co. et al. by Arthur R. Miller, Alan S. Kaplinsky, and Burt M. Rublin; for the New York Clearing House Association by John L. Warden and Richard J. Urowsky; and for Trial Lawyers for Public Justice et al. by Ann Miller and Adele P. Kimmel.
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