AFR joined 80 organizations in support of Senator Durbin’s ‘Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Rates’ Act. This bill, introduced to Congress on March 24th, caps interest rates and fees to 36% for all consumer credit transactions, putting an end to abusive lending that can top 300% and dig borrowers into a cycle of debt.
AFR’s Policy Director, Marcus Stanley, testified before the Senate Banking Committee regarding capital formation and reducing small business burdens.
“While the [proposed] rules are generally strong, we offer several suggestions below for strengthening the rules and closing loopholes. In particular, the CFPB should ban all overdraft fees; apply credit card protections to all credit transferred to a linked prepaid card; and limit fees before account opening and beyond the first year. We also urge the CFPB to require prepaid card funds to be held in accounts protected by deposit insurance and to adopt stronger rules to prevent coercive use of payroll, public benefit, student, released prisoner and other prepaid cards.”
“This bill will unnecessarily raise the cost of mortgages for millions of prospective homebuyers by allowing some of the higher fees borrowers faced in the lead up to the mortgage crisis… H.R. 685 would allow high-cost loans to qualify as QM loans by creating exceptions to the points and fees threshold. These exceptions would exclude fees paid to certain title companies affiliated with the lender. The points and fees definition is designed to include all compensation received by the lender. It is a reasonable standard that provides basic protections for homebuyers.”
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to oppose HR 1309, the “Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015.” This legislation would make major deregulatory changes in Dodd-Frank directives concerning the oversight of some of the largest banks in the country. It would make it harder for regulators to take action to manage dangers to financial stability, and make it easier for individual large banks to use special pleading to escape from oversight.
AFR submitted comments to the CFPB on the agency’s proposed amendments to its mortgage servicing regulations. AFR appreciates the CFPB’s attention to dealing with continuing problems facing borrowers seeking loan modifications, supports proposed steps to address them, and urges further changes to do so more effectively.