(June 24, 2009) AFFIL is one of the organizations presenting this joint testimony (PDF) at a House Financial Services Committee hearing today at 10 am. The hearing is titled, “Regulatory Restructuring: Enhancing Consumer Financial Products Regulation,” and will address the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).
Ed Mierzwinski of US PIRG and Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America will present the testimony on behalf of AFFIL and twelve other organizations. You can watch the hearing live on the FS Committee website.
Other consumer advocates who will testify include Kathleen Keest from the Center for Responsible Lending and Harvarad Law Professor Elizabeth Warren (see Professor Warren’s testimony here (PDF)).
Here’s an excerpt from our testimony:
In the testimony we present today, we outline the case for establishment of a robust, independent federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect consumers from unfair credit, payment and debt management products, no matter what company or bank sells them and no matter what agency may serve as the prudential regulator for that company or bank. We describe the many failures of the current federal financial regulators. We discuss the need for a return to a system where federal financial protection law serves as a floor not as a ceiling, and consumers are again protected by the three-legged stool of federal protection, state enforcement and private enforcement.
Tags: CFPA, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Elizabeth Warren, Financial Product Safety Commission, re-regulation, testimony, US PIRG