Statements and Press Releases Archives - Page 45 of 84

AFR Statement: The Department of Education’s Proposed Rule on Borrower Defense to Repayment

“For years, advocates have urged the Department of Education to relieve the staggering debt of students who attended for-profit colleges like Corinthian which broke the law. Today, the Department released a forward-looking proposal outlining how students who were victims of illegal acts by their school may pursue a ‘borrower defense to repayment,’ or cancellation of the debt on their federal student loans. We look forward to working with the Department to improve the final proposal so that all students victimized by unlawful and deceptive conduct receive every penny of relief they deserve.”

AFR Statement: House Appropriations Bill Would Undermine Financial Reform

“The House Appropriations Committee has approved a funding bill packed with riders that would roll back financial reform and undermine consumer protection. These ideological policy provisions have no business being added to such a measure. “

AFR Statement: Hensarling Plan Would Dramatically Weaken Financial Regulation

“[T]his plan doesn’t get tough on banks; it gets tough on the regulators policing them. It would dramatically weaken their ability to do their jobs, and make it correspondingly easier for Wall Street banks, shadow banks, and lending companies to profit by ripping off consumers and engaging in reckless and dangerous short term speculation, rather than by providing loans, capital, and financial services on fair and transparent terms.”

AFR Statement: Historic Opportunity to End Predatory Payday Lending

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has come out with a proposal for the first federal regulation of small-dollar consumer loans. This rulemaking could help millions of people and be a breakthrough in the struggle to end the abuses of triple-digit-interest, debt-trap lenders. To realize that potential, however, the CFPB will have to address what appear to be a number of weaknesses in this iteration.”

Joint Statement: AFR, 9 Organizations Call the Payday Rule a Good Beginning

“Consumer, faith and civil rights leaders urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to take advantage of the historic opportunity presented by their new rule, proposed earlier today, and strengthen the rule, in order to rein in the worst abuses of payday and car title lending.”

AFR Statement: House appropriations bill would “use backdoor means to achieve unpopular ends”

“In what has almost become an annual ritual, the 2017 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill set for mark-up in the House of Representatives today is packed with policy riders that would loosen rules, weaken agencies charged with protecting the public interest, and make it easier for Wall Street banks, shadow banks, and predatory lenders to take advantage of consumers and investors.”

AFR Statement: DOL retirement investment rule deserves Senate backing, not blocking

The Senate will vote today on a resolution to disapprove the Department of Labor’s rule requiring retirement advisers to put their clients’ best interests first. The principal sponsors of the Senate resolution – Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Mike Enzi of Wyoming

AFR Statement: Appeals court reopens the door to justice in LIBOR rate rigging

“Despite admissions of wrongdoing by major banks, the many victims of this fraud – from governments to pension funds to smaller banks – have yet to be compensated for their losses. With today’s ruling, they have a better chance to recover the money wrongfully taken from them by a group of the world’s largest banks.”

AFR Statement: Study of car-title loans underscores need for payday rules

“Car-title loans, like payday loans, are often marketed as a source of short-term emergency credit; but they’re engineered, the CFPB’s research showed, to suck people into high-cost long-term debt. Only 12 percent of borrowers manage to repay their loans within the typical prescribed term of 30 days, according to the study, while fully 20 percent of borrowers end up losing their vehicles. The average borrower pays more in fees ($1,300) than the amount borrowed ($1,000).”

AFR Statement: Google sets an important example on payday loan ads

“To its considerable credit, Google has decided to stop running search ads for debt-trap payday loans. This decision, which follows a similar announcement by Facebook last year, closes off an important avenue of customer recruitment for an industry that is doing more and more of its business online. Payday loans, whether made through physical or virtual storefronts, are engineered to suck people into long-term triple-digit-interest debt, making their financial problems worse, not better.”