From Americans for Financial Reform (http://www.ourfinancialsecurity.org):
Congressional opponents of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are threatening to block the CFPB’s prepaid card rule – a common sense rule to stop fraud and predatory overdraft charges on prepaid cards and to keep them truly prepaid. Consumer advocates have issue responses to this effort (find a collection of those statements here).
The biggest beneficiary of stopping this rule? NetSpend! They charge some $80 million a year in overdraft fees on payday lender prepaid cards. Senators from NetSpend’s home state of Georgia have filed the resolution to block the CFPB rule.
“We urge Georgia’s senators to side with Georgia veterans, seniors and struggling families and not with a company that takes overdraft fees out of the pockets of these and other Georgians,” said Liz Coyle, Georgia Watch’s executive director.
The Consumer Bureau’s continued progress on making financial markets fairer and safer confirms once again how important it is to have an independent and effective regulator with a consumer protection mission. The rule making prepaid cards fairer and safer is one more example of “unrigging” the system for American people, and it should be left in place.
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