WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley released the following statement after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced, on the same day that the CFPB’s new payday lending rules officially go on the books, that the bureau plans to rewrite the rules and will give waivers for lenders that want to ignore the rules and continue issuing predatory loans.
The CFPB’s abrupt reversal on the issue comes shortly after OMB Director Mick Mulvaney was installed by President Trump as Acting Director. As a Congressman, Mulvaney called the CFPB a “sick, sad joke,” and routinely allied with payday lenders against consumer protections.
“Even for an administration that has spent the last twelve months consistently favoring the privileged and powerful over working Americans, this is a new low. Payday lenders prey on cash-strapped families during their toughest times, often issuing loans with annual interest rates as high as 500% and sucking families into an inescapable vortex of debt.
“La propia investigación del CFPB que condujo a estas reglas concluyó que estos préstamos predatorios son 'trampas de deuda'; que cuatro de cada cinco préstamos de día de pago se renuevan o renuevan porque el beneficiario no puede pagar el préstamo; y que la mayoría de los préstamos se conceden a prestatarios que tienen que renovar tantas veces que sus comisiones acaban superando el importe original del préstamo.
“Today’s rules had one simple premise: that lenders should not issue loans they know their borrowers cannot repay. There is no reason to defend payday lenders’ ability to issue loans that are, by definition, unaffordable, unless your goal is to prop up a predatory industry at the expense of consumers. This payday predator protection plan is a huge mistake and the clearest indication yet of the danger that Mick Mulvaney poses to consumers while he runs the CFPB.”
Merkley ha sido un firme defensor de poner fin a los préstamos abusivos desde su época en la legislatura de Oregón. Como presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de Oregón, lideró la exitosa lucha para limitar los intereses y tarifas exorbitantes de los préstamos de día de pago en Oregón. En el Senado, redactó disposiciones de la ley de reforma de Wall Street para poner fin a los préstamos hipotecarios predatorios y ha sido un líder en la lucha para poner fin al comportamiento predatorio en los préstamos en línea y para instituir un límite nacional sobre intereses y comisiones de préstamos de día de pago.
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