Today, under the cover of a national crisis, five federal bank regulators issued small dollar bank lending guidance that lacks the consumer protections needed to ensure loans do not trap borrowers in a cycle of debt.
The recommendations below are focused on direct relief for consumers and individuals with debt burdens, which should be in addition to other efforts to provide broader fiscal relief and to support small businesses.
The 43 million federal student loan borrowers are not getting meaningful relief from the CARES Act. It leaves an estimated 9 millions of federal student loan borrowers without any relief at all, does not guarantee that borrowers won’t face large principals when they return to repayment, and doesn’t include cancelling student debt, a move that both provides crucial relief to distressed borrowers and stimulates a fast-contracting economy.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 25, 2020 CONTACT: Alexis Goldstein, alexis@ourfinancialsecurity.org Halt to Student Loan Collections Must Go Back Further, Include All Borrowers Statement from Alexis Goldstein, Senior Policy Analyst, Americans for Financial Reform: Education Secretary DeVos’s announcement that some forced collections will be halted is
Letter to HUD asking for needed protections for reverse mortgage borrowers facing challenges due to COVID-19
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 24, 2020 National Consumer Law Center Contacts: Sarah Bolling Mancini (smancini@nclc.org), Odette Williamson (owilliamson@nclc.org), or Jan Kruse (jkruse@nclc.org) Advocates: HUD Must Do Much More to Protect Older Reverse Mortgage Borrowers in the Coronavirus Epidemic The National Consumer Law Center, Americans for
AFR Education Fund and 46 other organizations sent a letter to regulatory agencies urging them to suspend all non-COVID-19 rulemaking activity. Public advocates and regulatory agencies should focus all resources on responding to the public health emergency and the economic crisis.
Americans for Financial Reform and 62 other organizations sent a letter to members of Congress asking them to implement broad-based, efficient, and effective relief for millions of people and small businesses in the U.S.
This major crisis demands a massive and swift response, but it must focus first on health care, and then on easing the burdens on everyday people, communities, and small businesses who are hardest hit. The McConnell proposal falls far, far short of what the situation demands.
The McConnell Phase 3 #COVID19 bill offers only minor tweaks for some federal student loan borrowers. Even with those tweaks, the bill fails to address the enormity of the pending economic crisis. The economic dam is about to burst and McConnell is offering student loan borrowers nothing but a deflated, leaky life vest.