FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 12, 2017

CONTACT:

Amanda Werner
awerner@ourfinancialsecurity.org
(202) 973-8004

Bank CEO Responses Show Strong Case for Preserving Right to Sue

Senate Should Preserve CFPB Rule Curbing Forced Arbitration

Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen today issued the following statements in response to bank CEOs statements about their use and defense of forced arbitration. Sen. Elizabeth Warren had sought information from the CEOs about their use of the controversial practice:

“Forced arbitration is a bad deal for consumers and lets Wall Street profit by violating the law and ripping off their customers,” said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. “That’s one reason even CEOs are hesitant to defend it publicly, even as they fund their trade groups and give campaign contributions to keep people from having their day in court.”

“Even Wells Fargo seems to recognize that now is the exact wrong time to repeal what few protections we still have,” said Amanda Werner, arbitration campaign manager with Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen. “As new financial scandals seem to break every week, I hope the Senate will not waste scarce floor time on such destructive legislation.”

“While these banks refuse to publicly support taking away consumers’ Seventh Amendment rights, the lobbying groups they fund have been frantically pushing for it,” said Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs for Public Citizen. “But if CEOs don’t want their name associated with this overwhelmingly unpopular legislation, Senators should not either.”

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