Highlight
We Need the CFPB’s Rule to Stop Payday Loan Debt Traps
June 5, The Morning Consult
One of the essential functions of government is to prevent the wealthy from exploiting the poor. This administration should start fulfilling that function and keep their hands off the Payday Rule.
Other News
Five ways Mulvaney is cracking down on his own agency
June 10, The Hill
The acting director opposes the bureau’s October 2017 rule targeting “payday” loans and sought to delay it through several means. He delayed the compliance date for the first portion of the rule in January, and started the lengthy regulatory process to rewrite it.
Advocates worry about disbanding of key Consumer Financial Protection Bureau groups
June 8, WXXI News
Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Mick Mulvaney announced this week that members of three advisory boards at that agency were fired. That includes members of the Consumer Advisory Board and the Credit Union Advisory Board. He says the decision to disband the groups was made based in part on costs and budget needs and a lack of diversity. According to a statement, the agency will continue the groups but make them smaller with all new members.
REPOST: WBFO
Richard Cordray says Ohio payday lending law is worst in nation
June 8, PolitiFact
Though consumer advocates have long called for changing the payday lending law in Ohio, a criminal investigation has resulted in the resignation of the state House speaker.
CFPB’s Mulvaney Joins Payday Industry to Fight Regulation
June 7, The Washington Informer
Mick Mulvaney, the illegally appointed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), is a glaring example of one who appears to consistently relegate the financial concerns of America’s people in favor of businesses that harm instead of help consumers. His support of the payday and small-dollar lending industry is a prime example.
REPOST: The Seattle Medium
Why Did the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Fire Us?
June 7, The New York Times
The bureau’s new leadership effectively fired its Consumer Advisory Board, a volunteer body mandated by law that is supposed to advise the bureau, without ever having held a substantive meeting with its members. This sudden move and other recent changes at the bureau, including efforts to loosen rules intended to protect families and businesses, raise the worrisome prospect that the country will once again end up on a path to foreclosed homes, market failures and taxpayer bailouts.
Payday lender or loan shark: Is there really a difference?
June 7, cleveland.com
The term “loan shark” might bring to mind a scene in a movie where a gangster takes a crowbar to the kneecap of a down-on-his-luck gambler who can’t make good on repayment of a loan. The term “payday lender” might bring to mind an image of a legitimate business, complete with a bright green sign, that offers loans at extremely high interest rates targeted at people with low incomes or who would otherwise not qualify for traditional financing. Are they the same? The answer: Sort of.
Elizabeth Warren says there’s a dirty little secret behind the Republicans’ push for broad deregulation
June 6, The Stamford Advocate
Senator Elizabeth Warren offered a scathing critique of Republican efforts to deregulate industries ranging from energy and finance to the environment and consumer safety under President Donald Trump.
Trump’s consumer financial chief disbands key advisory boards
June 6, Reuters
Mick Mulvaney, the interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has disbanded three boards whose members include consumer advocacy groups and which advise on policy at the financial watchdog, board members said on Wednesday.
Bravo to a legislator, and boo to a would-be judge
June 6, The Orlando Sentinel
In his first legislative session earlier this year, this GOP representative from Winter Garden bucked leaders from both parties in opposing a bill that doubled borrowing limits and nearly doubled allowable fees on payday loans. While many Floridians use these loans — small-dollar, high-cost cash advances that they commit to repay out of their next paycheck — some wind up trapped in a cycle of repeated borrowing and mounting fees that leaves them deeper in the hole financially.
CFPB effectively dissolves Consumer Advisory Board
June 6, CNN
The 25 members of the Consumer Advisory Board, established by law as part of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were told on a conference call Wednesday that the board would not meet again until new members are appointed.
In some states, a debate over payday lending unfolds in the black church
June 6, The Washington Post
The debate often pits clergy against one another. Payday proponents in the church say the industry provides an important service after years of national banks pulling back from offering loans in regions with large minority or poor populations and black-owned banks all but disappearing.
4th Circuit affirms sanctions for attorneys in payday lawsuit
June 6, Lexology
On May 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed sanctions against three attorneys for challenging the authenticity of a loan.
Phantom Debt Collectors Settle FTC Charges of Deceiving Consumers
June 5, Imperial Valley News
A North Carolina debt collection operation, Lombardo, Daniels & Moss, and its principals, Dion Barron and Charles R. Montgomery III, will be banned from the debt collection business under settlements resolving Federal Trade Commission charges that they used false threats to get people to pay for debts they did not owe.
Mulvaney Sides With Payday Lenders Asking Court to Block Restrictions
June 5, New York Times
Payday lenders fought, and lost, a battle to block new federal rules curbing short-term loans that critics say can trap people in cycles of debt.