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Friday, February 15th, 2019

Trump CFPB siding with ‘loan sharks’ over consumers — and threatening to gut payday lender regulations

Author:     Jake Johnson
Source:     AlterNet/Common Dreams
Publication Date:     February 7, 2019
 Link: Trump CFPB siding with ‘loan sharks’ over consumers — and threatening to gut payday lender regulations
Stephan:   Millions of Americans who work full time, sometimes more than 40 hours on multiple jobs, still have to borrow small sums of money to get from paycheck to paycheck.  Elizabeth Warren spearheaded the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) precisely to protect these Americans from rapacious lenders who might as well be mafiosa. Now as with every other regulatory agency Trump is gutting the regulations in service to corporations and individuals who own payday lenders. It is a disgusting story, but very true. Here is the latest. And yet, today Trump's approval rating has gone up; it is 41.5% according to fivethirtyeight. That is the best example of the power of willful ignorance in the U.S. one could ask for.

CFPB director Kathy Kraninger

“This administration has moved the CFPB away from protecting consumers to protecting the very companies abusing them.”

In what progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups decried as the Trump administration’s latest “shameful” attack on vulnerable families, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unveiled a plan on Wednesday that would gut regulations protecting consumers from predatory payday lenders.

Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, denouncedthe CFPB’s plan as “a slap in the face to consumers—especially people of color—who have been victims of predatory business practices and abusive lenders.”

“This decision will put already struggling families in a cycle of debt and leave them in an even worse financial position,” Gupta added. “This administration has moved the CFPB away from protecting consumers to protecting the very companies abusing them.”

This decision will put […]

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