News Release: As Supreme Court Considers Argument to Defang the Watchdog, a New Poll Shows Wide, Bipartisan Support for CFPB

by team in Letters and Statements

For Immediate Release
October 5, 2023

CONTACTS:
Center for Responsible Lending – Matthew Kravitz  matthew.kravitz@responsiblelending.org
Americans for Financial Reform – William Pierre-Louis, Jr. william@ourfinancialsecurity.org

As Supreme Court Considers Argument to Defang the Watchdog, a New Poll Shows Wide, Bipartisan Support for CFPB
Over four in five voters back the CFPB’s mission

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following oral arguments made before the U.S. Supreme Court on the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a new poll – commissioned by the Center for Responsible Lending and Americans for Financial Reform and released today – shows overwhelming support from Republican, Democratic, and independent voters for the CFPB’s mission and for the Bureau to establish several new consumer protections.

Conducted by a bipartisan polling team from Lake Research and Chesapeake Beach Consulting, these new findings are consistent with over a decade of opinion research demonstrating strong public support for the agency’s role and work.

Click here to read the polling memo. Click here for the polling toplines for this memo. To read the toplines from the entire AFR/CRL poll, which includes an array of financial reform issues, please click here.

“An overwhelming majority of voters across the political spectrum support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its work to ensure financial companies follow basic rules of the road. Americans would be outraged if predatory lenders use their political influence to shut down the consumer bureau,” said Charla Rios, deputy director of research at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).

“We shouldn’t be surprised that the public really appreciates the concept of a federal agency whose mission is to fight for consumers. But the lobbying, money, and influence of big banks and predatory lenders often obscure this simple fact,” said Elyse Hicks, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform (AFR).

The poll revealed that, after hearing a brief description of the CFPB and its mission, over four in five voters (82%) say they favor the agency with strong majorities across party lines.

Among other findings, the poll revealed:

    • 86% of voters support the CFPB establishing limits on the amount banks can charge in overdraft fees and 85% support CFPB limits on how frequently the fees can be issued.
    • 86% of voters support the CFPB preventing companies from using hidden or back-end fees that raise a price after a consumer has chosen the product or service based on a lower advertised price.
    • Nearly four in five voters (79%) support a rule the CFPB proposed that would require payday lenders to consider a borrower’s ability to repay a loan and only issue loans to people likely to be able to repay.
    • An overwhelming majority of voters (73%) support a new CFPB policy requiring banks to report data on their small business lending in order to track inequalities in access to credit for women, Black Latino, Asian, and rural business owners.
    • Nearly seven in ten (69%) of voters support the CFPB regulating new financial products like high-cost installment loans, Buy Now Pay Later credit, and earned wage advance.
    • 83% of voters support further CFPB action to protect consumers from adverse effects of medical debt.
    • 83% support the CFPB using all the tools available to hold financial companies accountable for discrimination.

The survey has a range of additional questions, including on debt collection, forced arbitration, and student loans.

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