As representatives of consumer, community, religious and civil rights organizations, we applaud the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for releasing a strong proposed payday and car title lending rule and urge the Bureau to close some concerning loopholes that would allow some lenders to continue making harmful loans with business as usual.

At the heart of the CFPB's proposed rule released earlier this month in Kansas City, Missouri, is a common sense principle—that lenders should be required to determine whether or not a consumer has the ability to repay a loan without hardship or re-borrowing—a requirement that will stop the debt trap of unaffordable loans.

An ability to repay requirement, when broadly applied, achieves three critical goals for reform:

  • It will go a long way to ensuring that loans are affordable at the outset and do not set borrowers up for failure.
  • It will protect consumers in states without payday lending from industry efforts to roll back important interest rate caps.
  • It will create a level playing field for payday lenders, online lenders and banks alike.

The CFPB seeks public input on the rule between now and September 14, 2016. We invite the public to submit their comments to the CFPB today, calling for a strong rule to stop the debt trap at www.stoppaydaypredators.org.

Read the entire joint statement by:

  • Michael Calhoun, President, Center for Responsible Lending
  • Lindsay Daniels, Manager, Wealth-Building Initiative, Economic Policy Project, National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
  • Lisa Donner, Executive Director, Americans for Financial Reform
  • Rich DuBois, Executive Director, National Consumer Law Center
  • Tom Feltner, Director of Financial Services, Consumer Federation of America
  • Karl Frisch, Executive Director, Allied Progress
  • Wade Henderson, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights
  • Edmund Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director & Senior Fellow, U.S. PIRG
  • Liz Ryan Murray, Policy Director, People’s Action Institute
  • Scott Reed, Executive Director, PICO
  • Hilary O. Shelton, Director, NAACP Washington Bureau & Senior Vice President for Policy and Advocacy

For more information, or to arrange an interview with a CRL expert, please contact Charlene Crowell at charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org or 919.313.8523