Consumers Take a Back Seat at CFPB as Kathy Kraninger Testifies

U.S. PIRG

Tomorrow, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger will testify before the House Financial Services Committee for a hearing entitled, “Putting Consumers First? A Semi-Annual Review of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” Mike Litt, consumer campaign director for the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, issued the following statement.

“Director Kraninger needs to be held accountable to the American people. Despite her agency’s name, consumers have taken a back seat at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the last year.

A few examples: The CFPB dismantled its Office of Students and Young Consumers, stopped examining lenders for compliance with the Military Lending Act, and gave predatory payday lending its stamp of approval.

It also issued a proposal that would make it easier for companies to receive exemptions from consumer protection laws, under the guise of innovation.

The CFPB should enforce the law, not help companies evade it.

Given the outsized role industry voices are playing in the public debate right now, it is more important than ever before for the CFPB to hear from consumers. Consumers should submit their problems with financial companies to the CFPB’s complaint database. The CFPB  is also currently taking comments for its proposal to gut its own payday lending rule. That proposal makes no sense, so American consumers need to make their voices heard.”

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U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) Education Fund is an independent, non-partisan group that works for consumers and the public interest. Through research, public education and outreach, we serve as counterweights to the influence of powerful special interests that threaten our health, safety, or well-being.