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.
AFR and seven organizations sent a letter to Senators urging opposition to oppose Senator Inhofe’s amendment 384 to the budget resolution, which would restrict the Department of Justice’s Operation Choke Point or bank regulator efforts to prevent money laundering for terrorists and drug dealers. Operation Choke Point is focused only on banks that help scammers and other illegal activity, and Congress should not hinder these critical activities.
AFR joined 80 organizations in support of Senator Durbin’s ‘Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Rates’ Act. This bill, introduced to Congress on March 24th, caps interest rates and fees to 36% for all consumer credit transactions, putting an end to abusive lending that can top 300% and dig borrowers into a cycle of debt.
AFR’s Policy Director, Marcus Stanley, testified before the Senate Banking Committee regarding capital formation and reducing small business burdens.
“This bill will unnecessarily raise the cost of mortgages for millions of prospective homebuyers by allowing some of the higher fees borrowers faced in the lead up to the mortgage crisis… H.R. 685 would allow high-cost loans to qualify as QM loans by creating exceptions to the points and fees threshold. These exceptions would exclude fees paid to certain title companies affiliated with the lender. The points and fees definition is designed to include all compensation received by the lender. It is a reasonable standard that provides basic protections for homebuyers.”
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to oppose HR 1309, the “Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015.” This legislation would make major deregulatory changes in Dodd-Frank directives concerning the oversight of some of the largest banks in the country. It would make it harder for regulators to take action to manage dangers to financial stability, and make it easier for individual large banks to use special pleading to escape from oversight.
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 sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to protect retirement savings and reject HR 1090. This legislation would significantly delay and possibly prevent the Department of Labor from proposing a rule addressing flaws in protections for retirement savings, protections that have not been updated for some forty years.
AFR and 340 additional organizations sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to oppose any efforts to dismantle, weaken, or change the structure of the CFPB, which was established by Congress to ensure that markets work in an open, transparent, and fair way for consumers. Failure to appropriately regulate the consumer financial marketplace was a central cause of the financial crisis that devastated the U.S. and global economies; the CFPB is a shining success story of the efforts to correct the mistakes and close the gaps that led to that failure. The letter urges members of Congress to support the CFPB in fulfilling its consumer protection mission, rather than undermine it.
“H.R. 650 would not expand access to sustainable credit and would not serve the interests of homeowners and communities. Instead, this bill would undermine already vulnerable homeowners by stripping away protections created by Congress and implemented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”