Banking and Credit
Since the Great Depression, Congress has passed a series of laws to preserve stability in the banking and credit industries, protect consumers from unfair and deceptive practices and make affordable credit available to middle class and low-income families and small businesses. Beginning in the 1980s, the deregulation of financial institutions has fed speculative booms and devastating busts. Privatization of low-cost government credit for student loans and mortgages and weaker consumer protections has driven up the cost of credit and put consumers at risk.
Commentary
Information is power… and that’s the problem
Why #OccupyWallStreet?
Cry Wolf Quotes
Passing legislation like this will discourage lending. This comes at a particularly bad time when consumers and our economy have already had enough stress to deal with. It's not wise policy to create a consumer credit crunch at the same time that our economy is experiencing a commercial credit crunch.
…the government has used regulatory and political pressure to force banks and other government-controlled or regulated private entities to make loans they would not otherwise make and to reduce lending standards so more applicants would have access to mortgage financing… the CRA was used to pressure banks into making loans they would not otherwise have made and to adopt looser lending standards that would make mortgage loans possible for individuals who could not meet the down payment and other standards that had previously been applied routinely by banks and other housing lenders... a law that was originally intended to encourage banks to use safe and sound practices in lending now required them to be innovative and flexible--a clear requirement for the relaxation of lending standards.
You're wrong in stating where the problem came from. The problem came from this notion that everybody in America had a right to a house whether they could ever afford to pay their loan back. That's what the Community Reinvestment Act was all about.
“As an industry leader, Chase does not engage in several practices -- universal default, two-cycle billing and increasing a rate based on a change in a credit score -- addressed by the bill, but we believe the legislation as passed today has the potential of increasing overall costs to consumers, reducing access to credit, and reducing or eliminating low-rate options for consumers.”
Related Laws and Rules
Evidence
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Banking Lobby's Warnings About CARD Act Disproven
What happened after credit card reform bill passed Congress in 2009 (it worked).
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The Successes of the CARD Act
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes exactly what the act did and what the effects were one year later.
Backgrounders & Briefs
A Timeline of the CARD Act
An interactive timeline of credit card reform.
Resources
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition works against unfair lending and banking practices, particularly those targeted towards low and middle income families.
