CFPB Archives - Page 34 of 85 - Americans for Financial Reform

Press Release: More than 25% of consumers contacted by debt collectors feel threatened, CFPB reports

“In tens of millions of cases, debt collectors reportedly engaged in conduct barred by the Federal Debt Collections Practices Act. Nearly 40 percent of consumers reported that a debt collector had attempted contact four or more times a week. More than one third of consumers reported being contacted between 9 pm and 8 am. Three in four consumers said that debt collectors had failed to honor a request to cease contact.”

Joint Letter to Regulators: More Than 250 Groups Urge OCC Not to Offer Fintech Charters

“State laws often operate as the primary line of defense for consumers and small businesses; thus, the proposal puts them at great risk. The OCC must not undermine state rate caps. Interest rate caps are the simplest, most effective way to protect borrowers from unaffordable, high-rate loans and to align the interests of lenders and borrowers.”

AFR Press Release: Senator Warren Calls for a Mass Mobilization

“‘It’s time to send a message to big banks, payday loan lobbyists, and their Republican friends in Congress: the American people are watching,’ Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told a telephone audience of nearly 3,000 fired-up activists last night. ‘We’re going to fight back against any efforts to gut financial reform and to allow big banks and shady financial institutions to once again cheat consumers and put our economy at risk.’”

Joint Press Release: CFPB Taps Former Pentagon Legal Official to Head Office of Servicemember Affairs

“Mr. Kantwill’s appointment, along with the retirement of Holly Petraeus, who has led the Servicemember Affairs office for the past five years, highlights the CFPB’s extensive work on behalf of military personnel, veterans, and their families, long a favorite target demographic for financial predators.”

AFR in the News: Wall Street Critics on High Alert After Trump Victory (American Banker)

“[The] question is whether Dodd-Frank will be replaced or just torn down. If Republicans create a regulatory vacuum or simply allow the banks to write their own rules, [AFR’s Marcus Stanley] said, they will have gone too far. ‘It’s obvious that Dodd-Frank is going to come under severe attack both in Congress and the regulatory agencies,’ Stanley said… [T]he first question is going to be, What do you plan to do to actually address these Wall Street abuses? If the answer is, We’re not going to do anything … then that is something we are going to fight really hard on.”

AFR in the News: Bankers, Regulators Find No Easy Answers at Bank Culture Workshop (Wall St. Journal)

“U.K. banking rules now provide for unpaid bonus awards to be canceled or reduced, or bonuses to be returned or ‘clawed back’ if misconduct is later uncovered. Adjustments in unpaid bonuses within major U.K. banks tripled to about £300 million in 2014, from £100 million in 2010… ‘On a lot of these cultural issues, it seems like the U.K. is tougher than the U.S.,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform, an independent advocacy group for effective financial regulation.”

AFR Statement: Chairman Hensarling’s Erroneous Claim

“Contrary to Chairman Hensarling’s pronouncement, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is not subject to onerous executive orders regarding ‘Regulatory Planning and Review.’ The executive orders specifically exclude any agency defined as an ‘independent regulatory agency’ by 44 U.S.C. 3502(5), which lists the CFPB by name. PHH v. CFPB did nothing to change that statutory definition.”

Press Release: U.S. Court of Appeals Rules Against CFPB in Constitutional Challenge

“As the CFPB’s work to stop the Wells Fargo’s fraud demonstrated once again, the CFPB is doing exactly what Congress established it to do: serve as an effective enforcer of fair rules of the road to prevent unfair deceptive and abusive financial practices, practices that led to the financial crisis and cost trillions of dollars in lost homes, lost jobs, and lost wealth… Compromising the CFPB’s independence would be a huge gift to Wall Street greed and a loss for consumers. We are hopeful that this erroneous decision will be overturned.”

AFR in the News: Dueling Payday-Lending Campaigns Deluge CFPB With Comments (Wall St. Journal)

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has received about a million public comments… That figure is the highest in the agency’s five-year history… Consumer groups such as the Center for Responsible Lending and Americans for Financial Reform formed an alliance and ran a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #StopTheDebtTrap and shepherded people to a comment site…”

Joint Press Release: Advocates Deliver a Strong Payday Loan Message from Hundreds of Thousands of Americans

“More than 700 groups carrying the voices of hundreds of thousands of Americans from every state in the union today called on the nation’s consumer financial watchdog to put forth a strong final rule that will truly end the abuses of payday lending… That message was carried in a letter hand-delivered today to CFPB Director Richard Cordray and signed by national, state and community-based organizations representing seniors, faith denominations and clergy, labor and workers, consumers and veterans among others.”