Preserving Consumer Credit Choices
Consumer interests are best protected when people are able to choose among the widest possible array of credit options. A new watchdog organization, the Consumers Rights League, has been established to defend one of those options, payday lending.
In their paper "Predatory Charity: The Self-Interested Self-Help of the Center for Responsible Lending," the League takes on one of the most prominent opponents of payday loans. The League claims that the Center for Responsible Lending’s "advocacy has worked to the disadvantage of low-income borrowers" while the Center’s affiliated organization, Self-Help "makes loans at highly profitable rates and uncharitably takes those low-income customers to court over trivial monetary sums." An article in Forbes noted that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has prepared a report that "shows the Center for Responsible Lending has overstated the number of problem borrowers and argues that bans lead to more people bouncing checks, filing for bankruptcy and fighting with collectors."
For their part, the Center for Responsible Lending exceeded all boundaries of reason, responsibility, decency, and civilized dialog when they issued a press release attacking the Consumers Rights League as having joined "the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan and drug dealers...." in opposing the organization.
Officials at all levels of government need to recognize consumers are not protected by inflammatory rhetoric but by policies that preserve and maximize diverse credit options.
See Consumers Rights League website
See Center for Responsible Lending press release
