In The News: Zombie debt – CFPB proposal could trick consumers into bringing dead debts back to life (The Washington Post)

It is “disappointing,” said Linda Jun, senior policy counsel for Americans for Financial Reform. The CFPB should bar the collection of debts that have passed their statute of limitations altogether. “The whole point of statute of limitations is that the government has decided that the debt is no longer collectible,” Jun said. “If you can’t be sued on it, why are you getting mail on it?”

News Release: CFPB Fails to Protect Consumers from Abusive Collection of Time-Barred Debt (Again)

The supplemental rule states that debt collectors must provide consumers with specific disclosures when collecting debt that is beyond the statute of limitations (time-barred debt). The proposed disclosures would be in addition to the CFPB’s proposal announced in May to prohibit collectors from filing or threatening a lawsuit on a time-barred debt, but only if the collector “knows or should know” that the legal time limit to sue has expired.

Letter to Regulators: AFREF-EFF Letter to FTC on Private Equity takeover of .ORG

“PIR LLC will have to generate substantial additional revenue to service the debt which could force PIR LLC to take advantage of its monopoly position to raise prices to unsustainable levels, impose new service charges, reduce technical upkeep that could impair web connectivity or non-profit email traffic, or pursue other business strategies that could undermine the independence of non-profits including suspending or transferring domain names, in effect a censorship-for-profit strategy that has been used by other domain registries and internet companies.”

Private Equity Overstates Returns, Downplays Risks

The private equity industry promotes itself as serving the investing public — including union and other pension funds — by providing reliably superior returns than the stock market. But the reality is that PE investments are not necessarily better performers, their promises too often rely

Take Action: Fight the payday Debt Trap by supporting H.R. 5050

Right now, your member of Congress is considering a bill that would make sure that payday loan sharks can’t charge sky-high, triple-digit interest rates on their deceptive loans. Passage would be a big victory in the fight against the predatory payday Debt Trap. Use our online tool to send an email to your members of Congress, telling them to support H.R. 5050 to fight the payday Debt Trap!