April/May 2018


The HBCU Advocate 13


Predatory Lending Is the Tip of the Iceberg Your Opinion Matters


leaders who are


disturbed


about the many ways payday lenders are able to exploit poor people. The stories


they tell


are harrowing – about a woman who borrowed $500 to fix her car so that she could go


BY JULIANNE MALVEAUX The Protection


Consumer Financial Bureau is supposed to


“protect” consumers from fraud and predatory lending.


But since 45 has


ruled the roost, he has empowered exploiters to extract too much money from consumers. And he has exposed himself to implicit bribes, which is why the Consumer Financial Services Association of America was meeting at the Trump National Doral Golf Club from Tuesday April 17 to Thursday April 19, 2018.


who describe themselves as the “small dollar credit industry, offer loans at an annualized interest rate of as high as 600 percent, have been lobbying to loosen regulations against their industry.


As


they met in Florida, they focused on the fact that the Florida state legislature had planned to allow them to lend more, at higher interest rates, in the interest of exploiting more poor people, mostly Black and Brown folks.


I went to Orlando and Miami


as the guest of the National Faith and Credit Roundtable; a group of religious


to medical appointments, and then found herself


paying intervention more than


$6000 – 12 times the amount she borrowed—over 2 years, and still needing


to stop her


enormous payment. I went to hear ministers use the Bible to talk about the many ways that usury is seen as an abject sin. I went to Orlando and Miami because I wanted to bear witness to the work “woke” pastors are doing to forward the agenda of social and economic justice.


The payday lenders, Florida, it


If this were only about might


not merit my


attention. But Florida is Missouri, is New Mexico, is Nevada, is California,


is Wisconsin, is


Michigan. Each of these states have very loose regulations for payday lenders, which means that folks are charging as much as 600 percent for these “small dollar” loans.


The


challenge is that desperate people go “small dollar’ but offer their car, their next paycheck, or even their home, as collateral.


If the payday


lender can go into your bank account to pay, all your other bills stand in


the back of the line. How to close the gap? Take out another payday loan, and another, and another. Your small $500 loan grows exponentially. And nobody is looking out for you.


So the Consumer Financial


Protection Bureau offered a rule to curb in payday lenders. And now, with the 45-inspired leadership, CBFB is considering rescinding the consumer- protective


rule. This isn’t


way that CPFB has been curtailed from protecting consumers.


the only In 2013,


CPFB issued guidance about the legal risks of dealer markups and the ways that discrimination pushed Black and Hispanic folks into higher interest rate loans than their white counterparts. Toyota, Honda, Ally Financial


and


others were sued because borrowers of color paid much higher interest rates than their white counterparts.


Now, there is a move to


repeal the 2013 rule, just like the move to repeal the predatory lending rule. It will take the Senate to repeal the consumer protecting rules, but the sentiment is not to protect consumers. In state after state, there is a sentiment to make it easier for payday lenders to exploit.


And in state after state, there


are those who would make it easier for the CPFB to relax rules against discrimination in lending.


are tricksters. the “Consumer Financial


These payday lenders They call themselves Services


Association”, wording amazingly close to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.


They push themselves out as an industry association that manages “best practices” in “small


dollar


lending”. They engage in the most pernicious form of lobbying, even purchasing


the support of “civil


rights leaders’ who argue that people have “the right’ to enter into financial enslavement. And their high-rolling golf games at a Trump resort is a wink and a nod to the many ways this administration is ripping off poor people.


The new leadership of


the Consumer Financial Protection Agency has been pressured to relax payday-lending


rules. Several


states have bowed to the pressure to support the payday lender that exploit


exploited because payday low-income, mostly Black


and Brown, communities. In Florida and Michigan, and in other states, there are harrowing stories of people being


lenders have a legislative pass. This flies in the face of the notion that the poor should be protected from extreme usury, but it is perfectly consistent with the focus of this corrupt administration.


So who will take care of


consumers who face discriminatory interest rates, predatory lending and more? Perhaps voters will throng to the polls in November to elect a Congress dedicated to providing protection for consumers!


Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available via www. amazon.com for booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visit www. juliannemalveaux.com


President Dr. Kevin D. Rome Sr. Installed at Fisk


President Dr. Rome raises the Fisk University staff immediately following his installation. (l-r) Bishop Joseph W. Walker III, senior pastor, Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Rodney Hanley, provost and vice president for academic affairs


Photo by Ronald Pollard Photography


On Thursday, April 5, 2018, Fisk University officially installed its sixteenth president, Dr. Kevin D. Rome Sr. during his investiture ceremony. Mayor David Briley, Talladega College President Dr. Billy C. Hawkins, Lane College President Dr. Kent J. Smith, Jr., and United


Negro College Fund (U.N.C.F.) President and CEO Dr. Michael Lomax were among the distinguished guests to bring greetings and remarks. Dr. Ronald Crutcher, 10th President of the University of Richmond, delivered the Inaugural address.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16