Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller testified Thursday in Washington D.C., opposing new proposed federal rules that would prevent state authorities from regulating small loan lending and consumer access to credit.
The rules were proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to the attorney general’s press release.
Zoeller stood before the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, to speak about how the proposed rules would undo years of state work toward regulating the industry based on local needs.
The CFPB’s “top-down” regulations would compress the small loan lending market, Zoeller said.
“Like other states, Indiana has worked hard to strike this balance between access to credit and protections against predatory lenders,” Zoeller said in the testimony. “The proposed federal regulations would throw this balance off, and reduce access to short-term loans for the people in my state and others who need this type of financial assistance the most, and who need it from reputable lenders.”
This policy area has traditionally been left to states’ discretion, he argued.
He called the proposed rules part of “an ongoing barrage of federal government overreach.”
The CFPB’s proposed rules were introduced in March 2015.
After they were announced, several other state attorney generals in addition to Zoeller expressed concerns about the regulations through letters sent to the CFPB, according to the release.
“The progress we’ve made to advance strong consumer protections that work best for our states should not be undermined,” Zoeller said in his testimony. “One-size-fits-all, blanket regulations from a federal bureaucracy will only wipe out years of thoughtful, state-specific efforts to assist and protect our citizens.”
Alexa Chryssovergis
