WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — The top senators on the Senate Banking Committee reached agreement on provisions of a credit-card consumer-rights measure, bringing the legislation more in line with a bill that passed the House on April 30.

Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd and Richard Shelby of Alabama, the panel's senior Republican, reached an agreement over the weekend on the measure, which restricts how lenders increase credit-card rates and impose fees, according to a committee statement yesterday.

The compromise would require lenders to apply payments to balances with the highest interest rates first, according to the statement. It would prohibit increasing a consumer's rate based on late payments to another lender, a practice known as "universal default". "I expect some battles in the coming days from credit-card companies and their allies in an effort to diminish these strict new rules," said Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, in the statement.

The Senate was scheduled to begin debating the measure later yesterday. Roll-call votes on amendments aren't expected until tomorrow.