S/V Sundance: re: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Thursday, January 25, 2024

re: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

If you had a boat, Faith, what would you name it?

Maybe you'd pick a spiffy-sounding word, like "Majestic." Or maybe you'd pay tribute to someone or something you love, like one bank CEO did. He named his boat after something close to his heart: "Overdraft."

The bank he ran was notorious for padding profits by tricking consumers into expensive overdraft charges. Their practices were so egregious that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued them.

Too many banks have made an art out of juicing their profits by abusing the overdraft system — hiking fees up to be significantly more than it costs the bank to cover the transaction, or even charging fees when consumers actually had enough money in the bank to cover the withdrawals.

But the CFPB is fighting back — and it's part of the Biden-Harris administration's work to cut junk fees and lower costs for American families.

Just last week, the CFPB announced a plan to slash overdraft fees to as little as $3, which could save consumers more than $3.5 billion a year. Instead of helping CEOs buy new boats on the backs of people they cheated, that's helping working families stay afloat.

That's just the start. The CFPB recently got big financial institutions to return $140 million in illegal junk fees to the people they cheated. And the agency is working to curb excessive credit card late fees, stop banks from charging illegal fees for regular customer service, and remove medical debt from credit reports.

These are new additions to a proud legacy. Since its founding, the CFPB has handled nearly 4 million consumer complaints and forced big financial companies to return over $17 billion directly to Americans they cheated. Service members, veterans, seniors, students and millions of regular families have gotten help from the CFPB. For families on a budget, getting their money back is a very big deal.

Success stories like these remind me why we fought so hard to create the CFPB as part of Wall Street reform. This agency is a perfect example of how we can put government on the side of families. And I will keep fighting to protect it from Republican attacks — including the lawsuit they launched to try to strike down the whole agency.

There's plenty more we need to do to put money and power in the hands of working people. I'm running for re-election to stay in the fight, and to keep making big, structural change like making the CFPB a reality. If you can, please make a donation to help grow our campaign and fuel this fight.