Americans for Financial Reform

News Category: Press Releases & Statements

This Halloween, we’re fighting the Zombie Debt Trap

Halloween is a fun time of year where we allow ourselves to be “scared” by haunted houses, ghosts and zombies. But there’s nothing fun about Zombie Debt — which is time-barred debt that is past the legal limit for which it can be collected. The CFPB is trying to make it easier for debt collectors

News Release: Payday Lenders Openly Brag That Their Contributions Lead to Regulation Rollbacks

A video obtained by consumer watchdog groups Allied Progress and Americans for Financial Reform shows payday industry executives bluntly discussing how campaign contributions to the Trump campaign has bought them access to his administration. In a recent webinar, predatory lenders reveal their plan for using campaign cash to lock in a final CFPB payday rule that enriches them at consumers’ expense.

News Release: Groups: FDIC & OCC Are Wrong to Support Predatory Small Business Lender

Small business advocates, consumer groups, and civil-rights advocates today sent a letter to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) criticizing the agencies’ decision to file an amicus brief supporting a predatory small business lender that used a bank to evade state interest rate laws so that it could make a 120% annual percentage rate (APR) $550,000 loan.