CFSA pushes back on Wall Street
March 10, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)From a news release sent out tonight:
Today, the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), the trade association representing America’s responsible, small denomination, short-term payday lenders, questioned the activities of certain large Wall Street financial institutions for promoting their own interests over those of hard-working, middle income consumers.
“Unlike those who are responsible for the collapse of our financial system, payday lenders provide a fully disclosed, transparent and highly regulated product to working families with the highest customer satisfaction rate of any comparable product,” said CFSA Board Chair D. Lynn DeVault. “We are not an industry trying to hide behind pre-emption, in fact we are highly regulated in the 34 states we do business in. The attorneys general, banking commissioners and legislators in those states monitor our neighborhood stores on a daily basis.”
DeVault continued, “The same interests who brought complex and costly transactions that created havoc for millions of Americans are now trying to create a system of winners and losers that is stacked unfairly in their favor and is a bad deal for the average consumer.”
Not heavyweights
March 10, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)In a Scripps news story:
Opposing an independent consumer protection agency are industry heavyweights including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Bankers Association and Financial Services Roundtable.
Recent stories about our lobbying efforts are being pushed by so-called consumer groups to make us looking bigger than we are. Obviously, we’re not in the league of the big three mentioned above.
Corker denies “exemption” reports
March 10, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)A top Republican in U.S. Senate talks on financial regulation reform said on Wednesday there are no special exemptions for particular institutions in a proposed new government financial watchdog agency.
Amid reports that he has pressed in negotiations for special treatment in legislation for payday lenders, Senator Bob Corker said, “There are no carve outs for anybody.”
The first-term Republican also reiterated, in remarks at a conference, that consumer protection should not be allowed to trump supervision of bank safety and soundness — a position Republicans have held consistently through months of debate.
This could be simply about wording as the bill focuses on “systemic risk.” That obviously would exclude payday lending as well as other industries.
Financial reform plan “imminent”
March 10, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)From the National Journal:
The top Republican negotiating financial reform in the Senate peeled back the curtain on a number of important provisions of the legislation this morning and asked “if everyone will just chill” until the bill is revealed in the coming days.
“It is very imminent,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., at a National Journal event.
“We didn’t make careless loans…”
March 10, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)We excerpted a quote from a Congress Daily story today about the CFPA and our efforts to stop the bill. The service is subscription so we can’t post the whole article, but the essence is that the banks and credit unions are being critical of us. CFSA’s Steven Schlein hits back:
“We didn’t make careless loans that led to the economic crisis; they did. And we’re highly regulated by states; they’re not. And our loans are highly transparent; theirs are not,” said Steven Schlein, a spokesman for CFSA.
Will it all be televised?
March 10, 2010 | Uncategorized, federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)Screaming headline in the Huffington Post:
In Wisconsin
March 10, 2010 | Wisconsin, industry | Comments (0)Contrasting coverage
March 10, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)The Wall Street Journal covered yesterday’s consumer bill developments and focused on the $50 billion bank bailout fund.
Waking up to great news
March 10, 2010 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)From this morning’s New York Times:
A Consumer Bill Gives Exemption on Payday Loans
Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who is playing a crucial role in bipartisan negotiations over financial regulation, pressed to remove a provision from draft legislation that would have empowered federal authorities to crack down on payday lenders, people involved in the talks said. The industry is politically influential in his home state and a significant contributor to his campaigns, records show.
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Steven Schlein, a spokesman for the Community Financial Services Association, said the industry should not be dragged into the regulatory reform.
“The banks caused the financial meltdown, and they’re spending millions and millions to spare themselves from tighter regulation while throwing the consumer lending industry under the bus,” he said. “They’re trying to divert attention to us.”
Wow
March 9, 2010 | alternatives, federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)BOA drops overdraft protection on debit cards. From the story:
In a move that could bring an end to the accidental $40 cup of coffee, Bank of America said Tuesday that it was doing away with overdraft fees on purchases made with debit cards, a decision that could cost the bank tens of millions a year in revenue and put pressure on other banks to do the same.
