Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s efforts to protect consumers from abusive lending practices:

“The CFPB has taken an important step today to rein in payday lenders that prey on financially vulnerable Americans. These loans often come with outrageous terms, such as interest rates that can top 1,000 percent, and trap millions of Americans a year in a cycle of debt that many of them are never able to exit. I applaud the CFPB for their proposal and I will continue to work with the CFPB and consumer advocates to stop the debt trap once and for all.

“The federal regulation of payday lenders is long overdue. Dodd-Frank gave the CFPB the authority to regulate non-bank lenders to even the playing field for lenders and protect consumers from abusive, unregulated credit products. The CFPB’s requirement that lenders collect and share loan data will allow the CFPB and consumer advocates to assess what additional steps need to be taken to protect borrowers. I look forward to working with the CFPB and consumer advocates to strengthen this rule to weed out predatory lending and ensure consumers have access to safe, affordable, small-dollar loans.”

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