“The CFPB should use the authority that it has to make sure that borrowers are treated fairly, and that they get the information they need to take advantage of any repayment plans available to them. This means that abusive, profit-increasing practices that are banned in other consumer debt industries, but are still used by companies that collect payments on private student loans, must be curbed.”
“Late last night, a bipartisan group of Armed Services Committee members, led by Rep. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), a veteran, upheld the Defense Department’s efforts to close loopholes and add new protections to the Military Lending Act (MLA), a 2007 law that was meant to declare servicemembers off-limits to payday and other debt-trap consumer loans.”
“The undersigned national consumer organizations would like to express our strong opposition to H.R. 347 (Royce and Hinojosa), the misleadingly-named “Facilitating Access to Credit Act of 2015.” This bill would unnecessarily allow credit bureaus to be exempt from coverage by the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA).”
“…we are writing in strong opposition to the addition of language to H.R. 1195 that would pay for new procedural requirements on the CFPB by cutting or capping its budget, thereby reducing its ability to carry out its important consumer protection mission.”
“We got organized… We started getting groups like – God bless ‘em – AARP, Consumer Union, the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, LaRaza… More than a hundred groups got organized into Americans for Financial Reform. They pushed, and we got that consumer agency passed into law.” – Senator Elizabeth Warren, describing the struggle to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“We are writing to urge your opposition to the following series of bills, which are expected to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives the week of April 13th. Many of these bills would undercut important protections on mortgages, and re-open the door to higher fees and other practices that contributed to the devastating housing crisis. Others would undermine or put barriers in front of the important work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and are part of a strategy to weaken the CFPB and disrupt the good work the Bureau is doing preventing financial tricks and traps.”
“First, for a loan to be fair, the borrower must have the ability to repay… Second, the Bureau has recognized that this crucial principle… must apply to a sufficiently broad range of small-dollar loans, and not just to a narrowly defined set of payday or car- title loans. Otherwise, abusive lenders will do what they have done in many of the states that have tried to crack down on such abuses: find ways to evade the rules without giving up their basic debt-trap approach.”
At a CFPB hearing in Richmond, Va., AFR delivered a letter in which a remarkable array of civil rights, faith, economic justice, elder, community and civic organizations – 500 altogether, including groups from all 50 states – applaud the CFPB for its commitment to this issue and urge it to develop and implement regulations that finally put payday, car-title and other small-dollar lenders “on the same footing as other lenders, requiring them to play by the rules and make fair loans.”
AFR sent a letter to members of the House Financial Services Committee, urging them to oppose a number of the bills being included in today’s markup. The bills opposed by AFR would undermine the CFPB and help return us to an environment of predatory lending, irresponsible underwriting, and excessive fees that paved the way for our recent devastating housing crisis.
“Few practices are as abusive, unfair, and deceptive as the widespread use of forced arbitration clauses in most consumer contracts, including credit cards, student loans, debt settlement, credit repair, auto financing, and payday loans. Forced arbitration funnels consumers into a private system set up by corporations to protect and hide harmful and unlawful corporate behavior.”