INFORMEDdebate
YES
from members:
Should we have a
Consumer Financial
Protection Agency?
Mary Masterson
Clackamas, OR
It can be beneficial
to help educate consumers, ensure standardization and have
the power to put pressure on unscrupulous
entities.
David Lanouette
Sun City Center, FL
Multiple regulators
with different standards allow financial
firms to avoid most
regulations.
Albert Hill
Nashville, TN
Financial lenders take
advantage of customers’ lack of savvy.
Many do not understand the fine print.
RUBBERBALL
NO
from members:
the current adminstration has proposed creating a new consumer
Financial Protection agency that would regulate a wide array of consumer-
oriented credit, savings and payment products, including mortgages and credit
cards. The plan would consolidate oversight and authority into one agency with
the power to write rules and enforce them.
supporters say it will protect consumers from deceptive practices; give them
better access to financial products; and make sure information is simple, trans-
parent and accurate. They say community banks and credit unions would not
have to compete against unregulated, unsupervised providers who push the
market to bad practices.
critics argue that having a single agency would result in fewer options for
consumers, stifle the development of innovative and beneficial financial prod-
ucts and penalize providers who had nothing to do with the current economic
crisis. They say it will yield little consumer protection and increase the cost of
financial products. What do you think?
Stacy N. Marino
Cleveland, OH
People should take
responsibility for
educating themselves
about financial products. Don’t use what
you don’t understand.
Kenneth E. Bryars
Agawam, MA
There are enough laws
providing oversight to
financial institutions
already. Increasing the
bureaucracy would not
be a good thing.
Find out more about this topic on the Web:
•;www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_financial_services/013697.html
•;www.aba.com/Industry+Issues/RegulatoryRestructuring.htm
•;http://energycommerce.house.gov;(search “consumer protection agency”)
Jane Hallett
Minneapolis, MN
As citizens of this country, we have developed
an attitude that the government should protect
us from everything.
