consumer protection Archives - Americans for Financial Reform

NEWS RELEASE: Rollback of Payday Protections Enables Predator Profiteering Amid Health Crisis

The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathleen Kraninger, today announced the agency will strip out the core of a rule written and finalized under previous leadership that would shield consumers from debt trap payday and car-title loans. The decision will leave millions of people vulnerable to grave financial abuses at a time of economic crisis, and will harm people of color who are suffering higher rates of illness and of unemployment, and whom this industry targeted even before the pandemic.

Joint Letter: Letter to CFPB Asking for Suspension of All Regulatory Activity Unrelated to COVID-19 and Greater Consumer Protections During the Pandemic

Letter from over 90 groups calling on the CFPB to stop all regulatory activity unrelated to COVID-19 and take greater steps to protect consumers during the pandemic.

Letter to Congress: Renewed Call for Credit and Debt Protections in COVID-19 Relief

Letter calling on Congress to include consumer protections in COVID-19 relief

News Release: Supreme Court should uphold CFPB structure to protect consumers

The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to hear oral arguments on Tuesday, March 3, on Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The case is about whether the authority of this independent agency, led by a single director who can be removed only for cause, violates the separation of powers.

Fact Sheet: Kraninger Lets Industry “Drive the Agenda” at CFPB

Kathleen Kraninger, the current director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told an audience of bankers at a November 2019 industry gathering that “you are really helping drive the agenda.” Unfortunately for the public and for consumer financial protection, the Kraninger agenda and the Wall Street lobby’s agenda are indeed all too similar. Since the Senate confirmed Kraninger on a party-line vote, she has steered the CFPB in an anti-consumer direction, making it easier for Wall Street and predatory lenders to rip people off and to discriminate against people of color.

News Release: New CFPB Task Force Runs Counter to Agency Mission

“The CFPB is dropping the ball on enforcing and drafting federal rules to actually protect the public from rip offs and discrimination in lending,” said Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “Creating and hiring a new task force stacked with industry representatives and ideological opponents of regulation is one more move that runs directly counter to the CFPB’s basic mission.”

Letter to Regulators: AFR Ed Fund and Demand Progress Ed Fund urge the Federal Reserve Board to enact strong consumer protections into their FedNow system

The development of a real-time, ubiquitous payment system is an especially complex, expensive undertaking. Because of the scale of the endeavor, and its potential to impact the American public as a whole, we firmly believe the Board is the appropriate entity to establish a universal 21st century payments system.

Letters to Congress: Eleven organizations, including AFR, sent a joint letter to Congress urging opposition to H.R. 2570, the so-called Mortgage Fairness Act.

Americans for Financial Reform and ten other organizations sent a joint letter to members of the House Committee on Financial Services urging them to reject H.R. 2570, the Mortgage Fairness Act of 2017.

Letters to Congress: AFR Urges Opposition to HR 3978 — A Bill Harming Investors and Consumers

AFR sent a letter urging House members to vote “No” on H.R. 3978 — a grab bag of bad legislative ideas that would weaken SEC oversight of Wall Street and undermine consumers, investors rights and protections.

AFR Statement: Report Mulvaney Backing Away from Equifax Probe Shows Need for Credible CFPB Director

It’s one more reason why it’s so important to have someone with a track record of protecting consumers running the CFPB, not someone who wants to destroy its work.