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





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.





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.





AFR sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee opposing a dozen bills that would deregulate banks and strip away consumer and investor protections.





H.R. 2570 would open the door to predatory mortgage lending by making it easier for lenders to steer homeowners into high-cost, abusive deals on certain mortgages, especially on home equity lines of credit and construction loans