CAPS Members Submit Comment to CFPB on the 2017 Rule

First-year Berkeley Law students and CAPS members Vivek Banerjee and Dan Noel submitted a public comment on behalf of CAPS  to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on the implementation of the 2017 “Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans” Rule (the “Final Rule”). The students provided four reasons to support implementation. First, the Final Rule fulfills the Bureau’s statutory mandate under the Dodd-Frank Act to “identify and prevent unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices.” Second, the Final Rule shifts the burden to lenders to assess a consumer’s ability to repay, in acknowledgment of the limited choices indebted consumers actually have. Third, the Final Rule only constrains products identified by the Bureau as unfair and abusive, leaving space for lenders to innovate new ways of meeting consumer needs. And fourth, the Final Rule sufficiently seeks to minimize market impact without compromising the Bureau’s core mission of consumer protection.