Last month, Donald Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, led by Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, announced that those rules would effectively be ignored. CNBC reported yesterday on the latest effects of the Trump administration’s approach to the payday-lending industry.
The federal consumer watchdog has dropped a lawsuit against a lender that allegedly charged people up to 950 percent interest rates. It’s part of a move away from aggressive enforcement under interim director Mick Mulvaney that has angered career staff, NPR reported.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau confirmed to CNBC on Monday that it scrapped the suit against Golden Valley Lending in January. Mulvaney, who also heads the administration’s Office of Management and Budget,was appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the CFPB after Democrat Richard Cordray resigned.
Mulvaney – a harsh critic of the CFPB while serving in Congress – decided to scrap the legal action even though career officials wanted to move ahead with it, several CFPB staff members told NPR.
The report specifically highlighted a Michigan woman named Julie Bonenfant, who faced a financial crisis that led her to borrow $900 from Golden Valley Lending. She soon discovered that “her scheduled payments in less than 12 months will total $3,735, or more than four times what she borrowed.”
Bonenfant told NPR, “To be honest I’m really mad, really ****ed, because I actually voted for Trump. So knowing that his guy threw out this case that affects people like me, I feel kind of like stupid – just kind of like betrayed.”
