The NAACP worked with friends, colleagues, the Obama Administration and coalition partners on Capitol Hill, to create The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. It was crafted to help consumers navigate the often-complicated world of finances; to ensure that high-cost, unsustainable loans of any kind, including (but not limited to) home mortgages, loans for automobile purchases, getting a higher education, applying for a line of credit or covering a family emergency were a thing of the past. It was also the responsibility of the CFPB to ensure that loans were equally and fairly made without regard to a person’s gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or preference, Veterans or disability status, or station in life. Lastly, the CFPB was tasked with helping to educate the American consumer.
In just two years, Congress and the current Administration have neutered the CFPB and in doing so, they have dramatically decreased the protections we were able to gain. The CFPB’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity (OFLEO) no longer appears to have any enforcement powers, thereby stripping the Bureau of one of its key charges (to end discrimination in financial services). Furthermore, the CFPB has stopped reviewing compliance with the Military Lending Act as part of its examinations; it has halted payments to harmed consumers; dropped existing lawsuits and investigations of predatory actors; and the office specifically dedicated to addressing student loan abuses has been eliminated.
For more information on this issue, please read our Urgent Action Alert and take Fast Action by contacting your member of the US House of Representative today and urge them to support quick passage of the Consumer Protection Act (H.R.1500).
