“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.”
“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).”
“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.”
“’These clauses rob people not only of their constitutional right to go to court, but of the right to band together with others who have been damaged by the same corporate misconduct,’ said Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform. ‘Each victim is compelled to go it alone, even if the cost of taking action far exceeds the damages in any individual case. Because the process often bars the parties from going public with their stories, forced arbitration serves as a way for companies to keep evidence of wrongdoing under wraps.'”
“Consumer advocates commend the CFPB for taking this crucial step to limit big banks’ and other financial companies’ efforts to escape accountability for breaking the law, and urge the agency to use the full force of its authority to restore consumers’ right to choose how to resolve disputes with financial institutions in this, and every, context in the final rule.”
“Yesterday, 164 organizations that advocate on behalf of consumers, students, civil rights, labor, small business, and more, sent a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), urging the agency to use its Congressional authority to restrict forced arbitration – the abusive practice in which corporations bury “ripoff clauses” in the fine print of take-it-or-leave-it contracts to block consumers from challenging hidden fees, fraud, and other illegal behavior in court.”
“About half of all online payday loan customers end up paying fees ($185 is the average amount) triggered by failed debit attempts. Some lenders keep on trying to collect in even when there is likely to be no effect other than to increase the cost to the borrower. Some companies will even break a payment into multiple smaller amounts, submitting three $100 requests, for example, instead of one $300 request. A third of the customers hit with such penalties end up having their bank accounts closed involuntarily.”
“AFR welcomes FHFA’s announcement that it will take additional steps to limit the negative effects of underwater mortgages on homeowners and their communities. Principal reduction on underwater mortgages has been a priority for AFR and many of our members, and we have long urged FHFA to adopt this position. “
“These regulatory assessments add yet more weight to the case for aggressive action to realize the promise made in the Dodd-Frank Act that ‘too big to fail’ will be ended. The findings open the door to such action by authorizing regulators to place additional controls on the five banks whose plans were officially found to be ‘not credible’ if these banks do not meet the October 1st deadline for remediating the issues identified in the resolution plans. The regulators’ action also starts the two year clock in Dodd-Frank on the potential breakup or restructuring of these banks.”
“After years of effort, and against massive opposition by some industry players, the Department of Labor has come out with a rule requiring retirement investment advisers to give honest advice – the kind that puts the best interests of their clients first. Today’s announcement is a huge victory for American workers and retirees. “