Americans for Financial Reform today applauded the introduction ofthe Veterans and Consumers Fair Credit Act of 2019, legislation that would extend the 36 percent APR interest rate cap on payday and car-title lenders in the Military Lending Act (MLA) to cover all Americans.
The development of a real-time, ubiquitous payment system is an especially complex, expensive undertaking. Because of the scale of the endeavor, and its potential to impact the American public as a whole, we firmly believe the Board is the appropriate entity to establish a universal 21st century payments system.
Coalition letter urging the Federal Reserve to build in strong consumer protections into the design of its new real-time payment system
A coalition of 61 consumer, civil rights, and community groups today sent letters to three federal bank regulators urging them not to allow their banks to help payday lenders evade state interest rate limits.
A coalition of 61 consumer, civil rights, and community groups today sent letters to three federal bank regulators urging them not to allow their banks to help payday lenders evade state interest rate limits.
View or download a PDF version of the letter. November 7, 2019 Dear Representative: We are writing on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) concerning the reauthorization bill for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that was passed last week by the House Agriculture
By most accounts, FACEBOOK CEO Mark Zuckerberg fared poorly at a recent hearing in the House Financial Services Committee. This is perhaps especially true with respect to questions about FACEBOOK’s Libra project—the technotrust’s ambitious attempt to mint “real money” for worldwide use.
A video obtained by consumer watchdog groups Allied Progress and Americans for Financial Reform shows payday industry executives bluntly discussing how campaign contributions to the Trump campaign has bought them access to his administration. In a recent webinar, predatory lenders reveal their plan for using campaign cash to lock in a final CFPB payday rule that enriches them at consumers’ expense.
“We have here a striking example of how money in American politics leads to the abuse of consumers in the financial services marketplace,” said Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform.
Small business advocates, consumer groups, and civil-rights advocates today sent a letter to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) criticizing the agencies’ decision to file an amicus brief supporting a predatory small business lender that used a bank to evade state interest rate laws so that it could make a 120% annual percentage rate (APR) $550,000 loan.