WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have joined the Senate Democratic Caucus to ask the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to protect U.S. military personnel and their families from predatory lenders.
The senators sent a letter to CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger, urged the CFPB not to cease checking for compliance with the Military Lending Act (MLA) in the Bureau’s routine lender examinations.
“When the CFPB was making every effort to protect servicemembers and their families, its own routine examination of one payday lender uncovered a violation of the MLA, where loans at rates higher than 36% were being extended to more than 300 active-duty servicemembers or their dependents,” the Senators wrote. “We urge you to continue these examinations in order to pursue the clear bipartisan goals of supporting military readiness, saving taxpayer money, and protecting our service members and their families from predatory lenders.”
Full letter below:
The MLA was passed in 2006 to help safeguard active-duty military members and their families from financial fraud, predatory loans, and credit gouging.
According to the Department of Defense (DOD), losing a service member due to personal issues, such as financial instability, costs taxpayers and the DOD more than $58,000 per separated servicemember. In their letter, the Senators also requested that the bureau provide a full justification of its decision put servicemembers at risk.