Private equity moguls have invested heavily in the payday and installment lending. The development puts private equity firms in the position to profit from efforts by payday lenders to roll back an important new rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
New report offers details on over 20 cases of private equity investment in payday lending, and how the new owners or investors seek greater rewards from this predatory business.
A bipartisan majority of lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee last week rejected a series of public interest amendments in order to advance a bill full of gifts to banks.
AFR sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee opposing multiple bills that would deregulate big banks and strip away investor protections. AFR Letter Re HFSC 12-12 Markup
Americans for Financial Reform joined a group of public interest advocates in support of Leandra English’s lawsuit to be recognized as the sole lawful Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
AFR policy director Marcus Stanley testified to the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission on progress in financial regulation Testimony Before Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission — Marcus Stanley AGENDA and VIDEO (See December 5th Meeting): http://dls.maryland.gov/policy-areas/maryland-financial-consumer-protection-commission
American for Financial Reform, the Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumer Law Center, U.S. PIRG, and other nonprofit advocacy groups wrote a letter to the CEOs of all three companies asking for detailed information on how the data breach might be leading to higher revenues in credit freeze fees and credit monitoring services.
American consumers deserve to know how much money the big three credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — will make due to the devastating data breach at Equifax.
The hack may even have been a boon to the bottom line of credit reporting companies, which charge consumers to freeze their credit report or monitor their credit, even though consumers are seeking these protections due to this massive breach.
But the question is, what will Congress do after a hearing on data breaches? Will they act to restore our right to control information about our own lives, and protect our privacy, or will they let Equifax and other data brokers turn the problems they caused into an excuse for undermining existing state laws with a sham weaker federal standard that replaces them? Will they restrict access to the courts?