Consumers can now complain to the CFPB whenever they feel they have been cheated, abused, or misled by financial institutions. The CFPB tracks these complaints and intervenes with lenders where appropriate to resolve problems.
That would end, according to McConnell, under a Republican Senate.
9. Increase racial discrimination in auto loans.
The CFPB has been active in monitoring racial discrimination in auto lending, through its review of the business practice of the "indirect lenders" who underwrite these loans. That would stop.
The remediation that has occurred under this program would also end if the Republican Senate and House act as McConnell indicates they would.
10. Protect "too big to fail" banks.
Although Mitch McConnell claims otherwise, defunding Dodd/Frank would be a boon for too-big-to-fail banks. While he claims the law benefits them, the evidence suggests otherwise. As Mike Konczal observes in The New Republic, banks would pursue that designation if it were advantageous to them. Instead they're making every effort to avoid the label.
11. Help shady derivatives dealers.
While more needs to be done, the Dodd/Frank law was a definite improvement over the status quo. Konczal also offers a good overview of its other useful features, most of which would cease to exist if McConnell and the Republicans make good on their threats.
12. Allow more sneaky dealing in mortgages.
In Undercurrent's audio clips, McConnell seems to suggest that mortgage lenders didn't contribute to the 2008 financial crisis. This is nonsense. Fraud and excessive risk-taking were endemic throughout the mortgage financing system, from the underwriting of new loans to the bundling and selling of mortgages to third parties. That epidemic of fraud and risk-taking was central to the financial crisis, and to a massive loss of wealth for the American majority.
Americans were persuaded to take out loans without understanding their provisions, based on deceitful projections of their homes' future worth. Investors were deceived, too, as banks knowingly and deceptively bundled and sold junk-value mortgages as high-grade investments (with the collusion of the ratings "agencies").
"I have a friend who runs a mortgage business," McConnell says on the audio recording, "and he says the cost of writing a mortgage has gone up $1,000 for him."
Underwriting a mortgage clearly takes more time and effort than generating reams of "liars' loans." Businesses would rather not bother, especially when it's more lucrative to cut corners. That's why they support politicians like Mitch McConnell -- and why the rest of us shouldn't.
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