A case before the U.S. Supreme Court could threaten the future of an independent agency within the Federal Reserve System that helped crack down on payday lenders that once charged veterans exorbitant interest rates — alarming some in the military and veteran communities.
Dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, would be disastrous to service members and veterans who rely on the federal agency to protect them from fraud and predatory financial organizations, the Military Officers Association of America, or MOAA, and the National Military Family Association, or NMFA, said Thursday.
The bureau has protected thousands of troops and vets from predatory lenders, effectively enforced the 36% rate cap on loans to service members and their families stipulated by the Military Lending Act, and recouped millions of dollars for veterans who were victims of fraud, members of the two groups told the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs during a public hearing.
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“MOAA is gravely concerned by the potential weakening of the CFPB. We believe that, without a robust CFPB, service members, veterans and their families would lose a vital defender and the only federal agency mandated to safeguard their financial interests,” said Cory Titus, the group’s director of government relations for
