“This legislation would be better dubbed ‘Wall Street’s CHOICE Act,’ because it would have a devastating effect on the capacity of regulators to protect the public interest and defend consumers from Wall Street wrongdoing and the economy from risks created by too-big-to-fail financial institutions.” — testimony at House Financial Services Committee hearing, April 26
“‘The level of venom directed at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that is successfully carrying out its mission of preventing tricks and traps that harm American families, is astounding,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, a nonpartisan and nonprofit coalition of consumer and other citizen groups. ‘The changes proposed by the legislation only make sense if you want to weaken consumer protections and make it easier for Wall Street, and predatory lenders, to profit by cheating people.’”
AFR and 30 other organizations sent a sign-on letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in support of their proposed student loan servicing data collection initiative. Compiling such metrics and borrower outcomes would benefit market participants, federal and state agencies, policymakers, and borrowers. Obtaining a clearer view of the student loan market overall will help inform all market participants on how best to serve student loan borrowers.
“The Texas Republican shared a memo with other lawmakers last week outlining changes he plans to make to his so-called Financial CHOICE Act… Impressively, he’s managed to make a bad bill even worse… Marcus Stanley, policy director for the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform, said Hensarling’s revised bill ‘makes regulators even weaker than they were before the financial crisis…’ Score that a big win for financial firms after years of filling Hensarling’s pockets with money.”
“‘This latest bill will wind up making regulators weaker than they were before the crisis,’ Marcus Stanley [of] Americans for Financial Reform… told CNNMoney. ‘It’s definitely a shift toward empowering the White House to micromanage consumer protections and enforcement actions.'”
“Small businesses are a primary driver of job growth and wealth creation in the United States, providing more than half the country’s jobs and two-thirds of net new jobs. …There is a strong and growing consensus that small businesses should have stronger federal protections in the financial marketplace. …The best agency to oversee protections for small businesses is the CFPB. The CFPB is the primary enforcer of the core statutes that protect borrowers and other users of financial services against misconduct.”
“Today, consumer and civil rights groups, leading legal scholars and members of Congress will submit amicus briefs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the case of PHH Corporation v. CFPB in support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The diverse amici urge the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to maintain a strong, independent agency to protect American consumers. …’In the five years since it opened its doors, the CFPB has worked tirelessly to enforce the laws that went ignored in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, and has done more than any other federal agency to empower consumers against predatory, deceptive, and outright fraudulent behavior by bad actors in the financial industry…,’ said Wade Henderson, president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.”
Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform applaud the announcement of a proposed $110 million settlement for consumers harmed by the bank’s fraudulent account scheme in multiple class-action lawsuits against Wells Fargo.
“The first five-and-a-half years of the CFPB’s history has vindicated the decisions that Congress made in 2010 to create a strong independent agency to protect consumers from fraud and abuse in the financial marketplace. …It’s action have begun to reform the industry by making banks andother financial services companies more attentive to consumers’ rights…”
This letter addresses the CFPB’s proposal related to increasing access to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act’s protections for Limited English Proficient (LEP) consumers. …Many of these individuals participate in the consumer credit marketplace, but may have greater difficulty navigating the market, especially when debts go into collection and consumers face the legal implications of unpaid debt.”