“Consumer advocates say tougher rules are needed because lenders often prey on desperate borrowers who are living paycheck to paycheck by trapping them in debt. ‘Payday and car title lenders profit from repeatedly dragging hard-pressed people deeper and deeper into debt, and taking advantage of families when they are financially vulnerable,’ Lisa Donner, the Americans for Financial Reform’s executive director, said in a statement. ‘Curbing the ability to push loans that borrowers clearly cannot repay is a key protection.’”
“A federal regulator announced new restrictions Thursday on the payday lending industry, a move that is likely to face resistance in Congress. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s finalized rules largely reflect what the agency proposed last year. They are the first nationwide regulation of the industry, which had largely been left to the states.”
“A person dressed as the Monopoly Man (aka ‘Uncle Pennybags’) landed some prime real estate at a Senate banking committee hearing, seated behind Equifax CEO Richard Smith in a live-action photobombing… Amanda Werner [of Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen] walked into the committee hearing with a giant ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ card for Equifax and Wells Fargo, with the statement ‘forced arbitration lets financial institutions escape accountability for wrongdoing.’”
“Monopoly Man became the Internet crush of the day on Wednesday, after upstaging former Equifax CEO Richard Smith at a Senate hearing on the company’s massive data breach. The board game character, whose name is Rich Uncle Pennybags, was brought to life by Amanda Werner, an arbitration campaign manager for Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform, groups that advocate for consumer rights and protections.”
“[E]xecutives for both Wells Fargo and Equifax… will testify in Senate committees next week. Both companies have used arbitration clauses in an attempt to deny consumers access to the courts… ‘This rush toward a vote in the Senate is a cynical attempt to roll back an important consumer protection before anyone gets straight answers from Equifax and Wells Fargo about the damage they’ve done to the financial lives of millions of Americans,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform.”
“A cadre of attorneys and policy advisers from the Obama administration is teaming up to do what they say Education Secretary Betsy DeVos seems incapable of doing: protecting students. ‘Rather than collaborating to get more relief to students who’ve fallen prey to industry scams, and to prevent future abuses, DeVos has chosen to make oversight more difficult and accountability harder to come by,’ said Alexis Goldstein, senior policy analyst at the progressive Americans for Financial Reform.”
