Over 18,000 members of Americans for Financial Reform signed a petition calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ensure that consumers aren’t deprived of their day in court.
“More than 100 U.S. Senators and Representatives are asking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to move ahead with its efforts to restore the right of consumers to join together to hold corporations accountable when they break the law. In separate House and Senate letters, the lawmakers voice their support for a CFPB proposal that would limit the financial industry’s use of forced arbitration “ripoff clauses,” typically buried in the fine print of take-it-or-leave-it contracts, to block consumers from challenging hidden fees, fraud, and other illegal behavior.”
“AFR hopes that other agencies and private investors recognize the CFPB’s thoughtful recommendations and that the CFPB will remain an active participant in this important conversation.”
On July 21, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau turned five years old. In a joint statement, AFR and 25 allied organizations celebrated the bureau’s accomplishments. The AFR coalition also marked the occasion by hosting a breakfast event at the downtown Washington offices of the National
The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis to bring basic standards of fairness and transparency to the consumer finance marketplace. Five years later, our organizations join in celebrating the important changes the CFPB has already made, and in eager anticipation of the work to come.
Ninety-six percent of Democrats and 89 percent of Republicans regard financial regulation as important, according to the survey, which was conducted in June by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending. Here
“The House Appropriations Committee has approved a funding bill packed with riders that would roll back financial reform and undermine consumer protection. These ideological policy provisions have no business being added to such a measure. “
“[T]his plan doesn’t get tough on banks; it gets tough on the regulators policing them. It would dramatically weaken their ability to do their jobs, and make it correspondingly easier for Wall Street banks, shadow banks, and lending companies to profit by ripping off consumers and engaging in reckless and dangerous short term speculation, rather than by providing loans, capital, and financial services on fair and transparent terms.”
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has come out with a proposal for the first federal regulation of small-dollar consumer loans. This rulemaking could help millions of people and be a breakthrough in the struggle to end the abuses of triple-digit-interest, debt-trap lenders. To realize that potential, however, the CFPB will have to address what appear to be a number of weaknesses in this iteration.”
“In what has almost become an annual ritual, the 2017 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill set for mark-up in the House of Representatives today is packed with policy riders that would loosen rules, weaken agencies charged with protecting the public interest, and make it easier for Wall Street banks, shadow banks, and predatory lenders to take advantage of consumers and investors.”