“High overdraft fees make it harder for customers to be able to return back to a positive balance,” [said Christine Chen Zinner, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform.] “It contributes to involuntary account closures, even from customers being blocked out of the banking system altogether.”
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized new protections against overdraft fee abuses at the largest financial institutions, closing a decades-old loophole that allowed big banks to gouge their customers for an inexpensive service. The CFPB’s overdraft fee rule will reduce most overdraft fees from $35 per transaction down to $5, saving households in the United States $5 billion annually.
Today, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing with Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where lawmakers will hear testimony about the agency’s efforts to enforce and promote fairness, transparency, and competitiveness in the financial services that people rely on every day and hold accountable the Wall Street banks and financial predators that take advantage of vulnerable customers.
“Signs are mounting that the second Trump administration will try, like the first iteration, to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mission and capacity to safeguard the rights and wallets of families throughout the United States,” Americans for Financial Reform said in a statement last week.
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule to shield consumers from unscrupulous data brokers that sell sensitive personal and financial information, a vital step in both protecting online privacy and limiting fraud.
We are now full-on into the mad rush of the busiest shopping season of the year and retail sales are expected to reach a record breaking $75 billion just from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. But can we really afford all of these purchases? Or are we being lured into an endless credit card debt trap that will take the rest of the year — or longer — to pay off the interest and fees and charges?
Signs are mounting that the second Trump administration will try, like the first iteration, to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mission and capacity to safeguard the rights and wallets of families throughout the United States.
A cap on junk fees could have saved consumers billions. Now, opposition from big Wall Street banks is costing consumers $317 each and every second.
Today, Americans for Financial Reform is launching the Wall Street Ripoff Counter that tallies the money consumers have lost since big banks managed to block a new consumer protection limiting credit card late fees in court.
“If you mean to stick up for the little guy, and not stick it to the little guy, you don’t pick nominees from industry for agencies that should be protecting the public interest,” said Patrick Woodall, managing director for policy at Americans for Financial Reform.
Earlier today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a proposal that brings much needed oversight and supervision to large providers of digital wallets and payment apps, also known as peer-to-peer or P2P apps.