Stop Predatory Lending

On June 2, in Kansas City, MO the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will finally release their proposed rules for the payday loan industry. We’ve been fighting for this day for years and are thrilled it’s arrived. But this isn’t the end of the fight. It’s another beginning.

Community and faith leaders from across the country will be moving to action on June 2, in Kansas City and at home, to make our voices heard. We need a strong rule that shuts down the payday debt trap once and for all and we’re going to fight to make sure we get it. Join us by making a comment to the CFPB in support of a strong rule!

The CFPB will be opening a public comment period when they release the rules and we’ll need everyone’s voice to be heard. Check back on June 2nd for ways that you can submit your own comment to the CFPB and connect with groups working on the ground to be sure that we have a rule that doesn’t let the loan sharks continue to prey on our communities.

Every day, payday and car title lenders drain $23,951,459 out of the pockets of hard-working Americans with predatory lending practices. That’s over $8.7 billion every year and that doesn’t include predatory installment lending or capture every loan. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) started the process of rulemaking in March of 2015 – we can’t wait anymore. We need a strong rule that puts a stop to the debt trap now.

The Problem

From payday storefronts to car title lenders to online & installment lenders, predatory lenders take billions in fees every year by trapping customers in a desperate cycle of debt.

  • Payday loans average 300% APR or higher, and online payday loans average over 650% APR.
  • 94% of all borrowers take out another loan within a month and more than half take out a new loan the SAME DAY their old loan was due.
  • One in six borrowers lose their car on top of paying steep interest and fees on car title loans

Last year, NPA and our affiliates organized and got the big banks OUT of the business of ripping off their own customers through checking account payday loans. Now we are focused on cleaning up the rest of the industry to stop the worst of the abuses through an upcoming rule-making from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

For the first time in history, Congress has given a federal agency the authority to uniformly regulate small-dollar consumer loans: the payday, installment and related loan industries that strip billions in wealth from our communities and trap our families and neighbors in endless debt. Created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Accountability Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was given the authority to regulate non-bank financial institutions, including the small dollar loan industry.

We are demanding that the CFPB issue rules that are both strong enough to end the debt trap and broad enough to cover all the industry.

Join us in calling for strong, common sense rules that level the playing field for responsible small dollar lenders and that will stop the stripping of wealth from our families and neighbors.

Want to learn more about the vicious payday loan sharks preying on our communities? Check out the Shark Week 2015 page from our partners at National People’s Action and the Preyday Lenders page from more info.