Durbin Introduces Legislation to Protect Consumers from Unfair Credit Practices

Press Release

Durbin Introduces Legislation to Protect Consumers from Unfair Credit Practices

United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation today to create the Consumer Credit Safety Commission, a single government agency in charge of ensuring that the offering of financial credit to consumers is responsible, accountable, and transparent.

"Our financial system requires a fundamental overhaul, so that the needs of American families stand above the interests of Wall Street," Durbin said. "This new agency would look out for consumers first, acting quickly to protect consumers from predatory practices and ensuring that companies are held accountable when they abuse, deceive or take advantage of the consumer they claim to be helping. As soon as we have addressed the immediate crisis, we need to look beyond it and take steps to prevent similar abuses and errors in the future."

The current crisis has demonstrated that the nation's current financial regulation structure has diminished consumer protections and eroded consumer confidence. In the absence of meaningful oversight, the number of excessively costly or predatory consumer credit products has exploded.

The Consumer Credit Safety Commission will add consumer protection to the factors lenders must consider in creating and offering financial credit. It will identify the practices that undermine sound markets and put a stop to them before they bring the entire financial market to its knees.

The bill allows the commission to:

* Prevent and eliminate unfair practices that lead consumers to incur unreasonable, inappropriate, or excessive debt or make it difficult for consumers to escape existing debt, by banning practices that are abusive, fraudulent, predatory or anticompetitive;
* Promote practices that assist and encourage consumers to use credit responsibly, avoid excessive debt, and avoid unnecessary or excessive charges derived from or associated with credit products;
* Ensure credit history is maintained, reported, and used fairly and accurately; and
* Collect, investigate, resolve, and inform the public about consumer complaints regarding consumer credit;

Senator Durbin is the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. His committee is responsible for overseeing a broad section of nation's financial services regulators. Just this Congress, Durbin has introduced a number of bills attempting to curb fraudulent and predatory financial practices. Those bills include the Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act, the National Guard and Reservist Debt Relief Act, the Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Credit Rates Act, and the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008.

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