The US House Financial Services Committee heard from 30 consumer groups including CRL via an October 6, 2009 sign-on letter about ongoing auto financing scams. The National Association of Car Dealers (NADA) is lobbying hard for exemption from the CFPA (HR 3126). CRL and its allies strongly urge Committee members to ensure that the proposed consumer protection agency has strong car dealer oversight in order to curb marketplace abuses.
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Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) In recent years, federal bank regulators looked the other way as tricky financial products with hidden costs and fees crowded out responsible loans. Dangerous products have stifled true innovation, depriving consumers of meaningful choices and leading the nation into today's financial crisis. We don't always need more regulation, but rather more effective regulation that is targeted and up-to-date. CRL is a member of Americans for Financial Reform , a coalition of nearly 200 national, state and local consumer, employee, investor, community and civil...
Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) In recent years, federal bank regulators looked the other way as tricky financial products with hidden costs and fees crowded out responsible loans. Dangerous products have stifled true innovation, depriving consumers of meaningful choices and leading the nation into today's financial crisis. We don't always need more regulation, but rather more effective regulation that is targeted and up-to-date. CRL is a member of Americans for Financial Reform , a coalition of nearly 200 national, state and local consumer, employee, investor, community and civil...
EXCERPT Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Bachus, members of the Committee: Thank you for inviting the Center for Responsible Lending to discuss consumer financial products reform – a fundamental component of the effort to modernize and repair our financial regulatory system. Over the past decade, federal bank regulators looked the other way as responsible loans were crowded out of the market by aggressively marketed, tricky financial products carrying hidden costs and fees. Dangerous products, whose most "innovative" feature was their ability to obscure their true costs and risks, led a race to...
Reckless lending practices that became rampant in recent years have devastated the economy, costing Americans billions of dollars in lost wealth and resulting in the weakest economy since the great Depression. Unfortunately, the regulators overseeing bank safety and consumer protections fell down on the job. Congress has taken a number of actions to investigate the causes of the financial meltdown, and key legislation has been proposed or passed to clean up abusive lending practices on home loans and credit cards. Most recently, on June 17, 2009, the Obama Administration released its plan for...
In this testimony, we first discuss why we support eliminating what is functionally discrimination in the law against the FTC in its rule-making authority, compared to other agencies. Section I. We also support the Congressional guidance to the FTC to use the APA rule-making in the area of consumer credit and debt, which we recognize to be central to the health of the economy as a whole. We first put that priority into context, with a general picture of the financial health of the majority of America's households. Section II. Turning to the specific areas identified in the bill, Section III...
Too often in the recent past, discussions over consumer protection regulation have been portrayed as a zero-sum game, where consumer protections are assumed to be a drag on the market, and must come at the expense of business. But that is a false dichotomy. Businesses have a symbiotic relationship with their customers. In the end, the health of the business community – indeed, the health of the economy as a whole – depends upon the financial health of America's households. Practices which undermine the financial health of households in the long run undermine the health of the businesses that...
It's the rare car buyer who walks out of a dealership convinced they got the absolute best deal on their purchase. CRL researchers have closely scrutinized dubious car lending practices – using data derived from industry sources and results from a consumer survey – so that buyers might be better informed and get a fairer shake. "Car Trouble: Predatory Auto Loans Burden North Carolina Consumers," is CRL's first ever research report on this topic, and its findings are concerning. We found that total kickback volume in North Carolina for new and used autos bought in 2007 totals a massive $665...