Brown Blasts The Trump Administration for Gutting The Payday Lending Rule

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs – released the following statement following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) announcement of a new payday lending rule. The CFPB previously issued a 2017 rule under former Director Cordray that required payday lenders to determine that consumers can repay loans. The new rule eliminates this critical protection and follows reports that Trump’s political appointees at the CFPB manipulated research to support the new rule.

“Last October we learned that, in exchange for contributions to the Trump campaign, payday lenders were bragging about being able to ‘pick up the phone and . . . get the president’s attention’ to fend off regulation. Today, the CFPB gave payday lenders exactly what they paid for by gutting a rule that would have protected American families from predatory loans that trap them in cycles of debt,” said Senator Brown. “This new rule—and recent reports  that political appointees manipulated research to support the new rule—show just how far the CFPB under Director Kraninger will go to protect President Trump’s corporate cronies instead of consumers.”

Recently, Sen. Brown joined Senators Jones (D-Ala), Van Hollen (D-Md.), Warren (D-Mass), and Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) in a letter calling on the CFPB’s Inspector General to investigate whether the alleged misconduct violates federal law.