Talking Points

In coming weeks, Congress will likely vote on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act (H.R. 3126), a bill that would establish an agency whose sole responsibility is to protect consumers from discriminatory and predatory lending practices.  On October 22, the bill passed through House Financial Services Committee with a vote of 39 to 29.  The CFPA will make sure that consumers have a choice of responsible financial products and the tools needed to make the best decisions for them and their families, and provide greater protection to low-income families - including families of color - who are at the greatest risk of predatory lending.

In light of the damage done by the financial and economic crisis, consumers need a single agency that can be trusted - one that will centralize and strengthen existing regulation, hold banks responsible for their lending practices, and fill in the gaps where existing laws have failed.

Today, there are more than seven agencies tasked with oversight of financial services institutions, yet not one of them enforced laws to protect consumers and eliminate discrimination in lending practices.  They also went out of their way to prevent state regulators from picking up the slack.  These regulators are financially dependent on the very institutions they are responsible for policing, watching idly from the sidelines - even as banks have used government tax dollars money intended to bail banks out of financial ruin to fight reform of the manipulative, irresponsible lending practices they have employed to defraud millions of families nationwide.  This is unacceptable.

Write your representative and tell him/her that it is time to stop bailing out Wall Street, and look out for the best interests of main street.  Urge support of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act.

To read about the House Committee on Financial Services' Hearing on Consumer Financial Protection Agency visit: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/hr_092309.shtml

To read LCCR Executive Vice President Nancy Zirkin's Testimony Before House Committee on Financial Services visit: http://www.civilrights.org/advocacy/testimony/zirkin-financial.html