CFPB Archives - Page 39 of 82 - Americans for Financial Reform

Joint Letter: AFR Joins 44 Other Signers of Letter Urging CFPB Action to Make Prepaid Cards Safer

“While the [proposed] rules are generally strong, we offer several suggestions below for strengthening the rules and closing loopholes. In particular, the CFPB should ban all overdraft fees; apply credit card protections to all credit transferred to a linked prepaid card; and limit fees before account opening and beyond the first year. We also urge the CFPB to require prepaid card funds to be held in accounts protected by deposit insurance and to adopt stronger rules to prevent coercive use of payroll, public benefit, student, released prisoner and other prepaid cards.”

AFR Statement: House Budget Proposal Is a Gift to Wall Street

“Republicans in the House of Representatives have come out with a budget proposal that, while vague on many points, is all too specific in its attack on Wall Street regulation, the Dodd-Frank Act, and the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The proposal would tie financial (and other) regulators up in procedural knots… In addition, it would eliminate a key mechanism for the safe unwinding of a big bank in the event of failure; undermine the ability of regulators to detect and curb systemically dangerous practices; and end the independent funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

AFR Statement: AFR Denounces Senate Budget Committee Move to Strip CFPB of its Independent Funding

“There should be no mistaking the intent or inevitable effect if this change were actually made: it would cripple the first and only financial regulator with a mandate to put consumers’ interests first… The result would be a green light for more of the tricks and traps that characterized the banking and lending world for too long, and that the CFPB is working to clean up.”

Joint Statement: AFR and 23 Public-Interest Groups Praise CFPB for Going Public With Firsthand Complaint Information

“For the first time, consumers will be able to learn the details behind complaints against a company filed with the CFPB. In addition to searching by product, company, and complaint category, consumers will be able to discover what the real problem was that motivated someone to complain… Researchers and companies will be able to better analyze marketplace practices that are posing the most difficult problems.”

Online Petition: More than a Quarter of a Million Americans Tell Congress to Defend the CFPB and Oppose Efforts to Weaken the Bureau or its Rules

In petitions delivered today to all 535 members of the new Congress, more than 274,000 Americans sound the alarm against continued efforts to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 to bring basic standards of transparency and fairness to the banking and lending markets.

Letter to Regulator: AFR Comment on CFPB Amendments to 2013 Mortgage Rules

AFR submitted comments to the CFPB on the agency’s proposed amendments to its mortgage servicing regulations. AFR appreciates the CFPB’s attention to dealing with continuing problems facing borrowers seeking loan modifications, supports proposed steps to address them, and urges further changes to do so more effectively.

Letter to Congress: AFR Urges Congress Not to Weaken the CFPB

AFR sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 1266, the “Financial Product Safety Commission Act of 2015.” This bill would change the structure of the CFPB; instead of being led by a single director, it would be headed by a Commission of five members, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This change in structure would reduce the Bureau’s effectiveness in standing up for the public interest, and reduce the accountability of its leadership.

AFR Statement: We Welcome the President’s Call for a “Student Aid Bill of Rights”

“AFR urges swift adoption of these changes, along with further measures to deal with the burden of student loan debt. The complaint system is one of a number of places we think steps can and should be taken ahead of the deadlines laid out by the Administration. While the Department is establishing a full system for dealing with complaints, which should be comprehensive, it should partner with the CFPB so that borrowers can immediately use that process to submit complaints about federal student loans (as they already can about private loans).”

AFR Statement: CFPB Makes a Compelling Case for Banning Forced Arbitration

“In its latest study of forced arbitration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) confirms what consumers and consumer advocates have long said about this practice: it is a private dispute system stacked against individuals seeking justice. AFR applauds the release of the CFPB’s report, and urges the Bureau to move forward swiftly with rulemaking to prohibit forced arbitration in consumer financial contracts.”

Press Release: Joint Letter Warns Congress Against Measures to Weaken CFPB

In a joint letter to Congress, Americans for Financial Reform and 340 organizations–state, local and national consumer groups, civil rights groups, faith-based groups, housing groups, labor unions and others–warn against efforts to “dismantle, weaken, or change the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”