Table of Contents

Opposition to Earned Wage Access Consumer Protection Act
More than a hundred advocacy groups wrote to U.S. Representative Bryan Steil, author of the draft Earned Wage Access Consumer Protection Act, to voice their opposition to the bill because its true effect would be to exempt FinTech companies and payday lenders from regulations designed to protect consumers.

Regulators should reject FinTech startup’s bank charter application
Advocates called upon federal banking regulators to reject a worrisome and inadequate bank charter application recently filed by Figure Bank, National Association. The coalition warns that the FinTech company’s bank application is silent about core issues of honesty, transparency and sustainability. Federal banking regulators are the public’s first line of defense. They have a duty to protect the public from investors who are more interested in lining their own pockets than in helping their customers and communities build wealth.

CFPB urged to reverse earned wage actions that could create dangerous FinTech payday loopholes
A coalition of 96 consumer, labor, civil rights, legal services, faith, community and financial organizations and academics is urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to revoke or significantly revise two actions taken in late 2020 regarding earned wage access (EWA) products. The group argued that the CFPB’s EWA advisory opinion and PayActiv approval order, which declared that certain EWA programs are not deemed “credit,” threaten to create loopholes in federal credit and fair lending laws and are being misused to promote FinTech exemptions in state laws that regulate predatory payday lending products.

Allies urge CFPB Director not to weaken its enforcement arm
A coalition of more than 80 consumer and civil rights groups urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger to "abandon" her "October Surprise" proposed reorganization. Instead of strengthening the arm of the CFPB that holds predatory financial institutions accountable, the proposal would drastically weaken its authority, independence, and ultimately, effectiveness, leaving consumers vulnerable and defenseless during an already financially stressful time.

Advocates tell CFPB: “Stop violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.”
Consumer Action joined a coalition of 20 advocacy groups in urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to revoke permission that the Bureau granted the credit reporting industry to violate the 30-day deadline imposed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for investigating disputes — a waiver that was given to help ease the burden of business operations during the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Given the severe financial difficulties that the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on millions of American consumers, and after seeing a 550% increase in complaint submissions to the CFPB on the matter, it’s more important than ever that credit reporting disputes are resolved in a timely manner.

The next COVID-19 relief package should include these critical consumer protections
Millions of people and small businesses in the United States are experiencing tremendous financial distress because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unemployment is skyrocketing and families are struggling to put food on the table. Congress and the administration need to enact broad-based, efficient, and effective relief that goes far beyond the CARES Act to protect people’s homes, cars, bank accounts, income, and benefits so that they can weather this crisis. Consumer Action joined nearly 100 consumer, civil rights, community and other public interest groups weigh in on recommendations for Congress' next stimulus package.

Stop the debt trap by implementing stronger regulations on rent-to-own stores
With limited or no access to credit and savings, low-income consumers often turn to rent-to-own (RTO) stores for big-ticket items like appliances. RTO stores notoriously charge customers two-to-three times more than traditional stores for the same items, leading to more purchase defaults, capturing the consumer in a debt trap. Coalition members joined together in urging the Federal Trade Commission to do more to protect low-income communities from the predatory practices utilized by the $8.2 billion a year RTO industry.

Congress: Pass a clean budget for FY2021
Advocates called on Congress to pass an upcoming federal budget that funds the things that Americans care about, not undo essential consumer and environmental safeguards through policy riders. Policy riders are attached to legislation and rarely have anything to do with the bill. In fact, most riders are handouts to big corporations and special favors for interest groups that could not become law on their own merits. As Congress prepares the federal budget for fiscal year 2021, no appropriations titles, package of bills, or continuing resolutions should pass if they contain poison pill policy riders that go against the public interest, including policies that ensure safe and healthy food, restrain Wall Street abuses, provide access to justice and fair housing, and guarantee access to safe healthcare.

Stop banks from helping predatory payday lenders evade state regulations
More than five dozen public interest groups expressed deep concern about “rent-a-bank schemes” in letters to federal banking agencies, explaining that several nonbank consumer payday lenders have set their sights on using partnerships with banks to evade newly enacted interest rate restrictions in California.