Poll: Proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency Will Not Curb Lender Abuses

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency will not alleviate lender abuses that led to the financial crisis, according to a majority (66 percent) in ABI’s latest Quick Poll.

Forty-nine percent “disagreed strongly” and 17 percent “somewhat disagreed” that the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency would curb some of the lender abuses that led to the financial crisis.

As House and Senate negotiators are negotiating a final financial overhaul bill to send to President Obama, the final shape of the provision creating the Consumer Financial Protection agency remains unsettled. The House-passed bill would create a new independent agency that would write rules to protect consumers from unfair terms in credit cards, mortgages, payday loans and other lending products. The Senate-passed bill would create a consumer financial bureau within the Federal Reserve and its rules could be blocked by other regulators in some circumstances.

Twenty-eight percent of respondents thought that the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency would curb some of the lender abuses that led to the financial crisis. Seventeen percent “somewhat agreed” and 11 percent “agreed strongly.” Four percent did not know or had no opinion on the issue.

ABI members and members of the public were welcome to submit their response to the statement: “The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency will alleviate lender abuses that led to the financial crisis.”