Student Loan Servicer Fights Back as States Eye Protections

Source
Marina Villeneuve | Associated Press
That change and Navient's lobbying against state licensing efforts are drawing concern from consumer advocacy groups, who point to federal scrutiny over Navient and President Donald Trump's administration's moves to change regulations protecting borrowers. "From our perspective, that's going to require more state oversight," said Whitney Barkley-Denney, from the Center for Responsible Lending. "One servicer creates a too-big-to-fail environment where...

House GOP Passes Bill to Gut Financial Regulations and Consumer Protections

Source
Coalition on Human Needs
Yana Miles, senior legislative counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, said, “The bill even specifically exempts payday and car title lenders — notorious for springing devastating debt traps for their already vulnerable customers — from any regulation.” The bill passed the House (233-186) with only Republican support; all Democrats and Republican Rep. Walter Jones (NC) voted no. It is...

Request for Information on 'Predatory' Lenders Weighed by Supreme Court

Source
Robert Zullo | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Seventeen states plus the District of Columbia either cap interest rates so low that lenders don’t set up shop there or bar the use of a vehicle title as a collateral for a loan, said Lisa Stifler, deputy director of state policy for the Center for Responsible Lending. The center is a North Carolina nonprofit that aims to protect low-income...

House Votes to Dismantle Key Dodd-Frank Regulations

Source
Casey Quinlan | ThinkProgress
“The director of an agency would be moving with the political wind,” Miles said. “If there is a law on the books that already says if there are big problems with how someone handles an agency, there is process for removing them, why make it at-will? That just politicizes the agency.”

Financial Crash Devastated Central Valley. Why Risk a Repeat?

Source
Graciela Aponte-Diaz | The Sacramento Bee
The U.S. House is expected to vote Thursday on the so-called Financial CHOICE Act, a bill that would eliminate consumer protections and destroy safeguards in place to avert financial crises like the one California just survived. The bill should be called the “Wrong Choice Act,” because it will turn back the clock to 2007, when toxic and manipulative financial products...

House Republicans Are Trying to Pass the Most Dangerous Wall Street Deregulation Bill Ever

Source
Hannah Levintova | Mother Jones
The CHOICE Act would eliminate the CFPB’s power to regulate “small-dollar credit,” including “payday loans, vehicle title loans, or other similar loans” with extremely high interest rates that are used by more than 19 million mostly lower income US households to make ends meet when they’re lacking other options. Given the interest, these loans can lead to a cycle of...

Department of Consumer Affairs Launches Public Awareness Campaign to Help Consumers Avoid Predatory Lending in the Used Car Industry

Source
Abigail Lootens | New York City Office of Consumer Affairs
“The Center for Responsible Lending believes that addressing predatory lending practices requires effective regulation, enforcement and strategies to make consumers aware of how to combat abuses,” said Chris Kukla, Executive Vice President with the Center for Responsible Lending. “DCA’s announcement today, as part of an overall effort to make the car buying market safer for New York City consumers, is...