Trump’s CFPB Director Threatens to Fill the Swamp With Loan Sharks
Feb. 6, 2019
Trump’s CFPB Director Threatens to Fill the Swamp With Loan Sharks
Statement of Bartlett Naylor, Financial Policy Advocate, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division
Note: Today, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed to eliminate safeguards for consumers seeking payday or auto title loans. The proposal would amend an Obama-era consumer protection rule and remove requirements that lenders assess whether borrowers have the ability to repay their loans.
When President Donald Trump picked Kathy Kraninger to direct the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), it was a good day for predatory lenders and a terrible day for low-income borrowers. Now just weeks into her tenure at the agency, Kraninger has released a proposal to roll back a rule that provides important protections to help people avoid getting caught in cycles of ever-increasing debt.
With this proposal, an agency that’s supposed to protect consumers will be doing the opposite – putting vulnerable borrowers at even greater financial risk by enabling lenders to continue their abuses. Kraninger’s proposal would overturn consumer protections to address payday lenders’ unfair and abusive practices — protections that the CFPB spent years developing.
Bitter is the pill for those discarded by the American economy who thought Trump might protect them against toxic loans.
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