The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) joined the National Consumer Law Center, National Association of Consumer Advocates, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, and Public Justice in comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In these comments, CFA supported a proposed regulation to protect consumers under the Credit Practices Act. The Credit Practices Act protects consumers from unfair or deceptive credit practices by prohibiting certain contract provisions and requiring specific disclosures, particularly regarding cosigners

The CFPB now proposes to codify into its own regulations the provisions of the Credit Practices Rule, making it applicable to all “covered persons” (with certain exceptions such as for “small businesses”). “Covered persons” include the non-bank finance companies and other lenders covered by the FTC’s Credit Practices Rule, plus the financial institutions that have been historically covered by another regulation, and then by the Interagency Guidance. Additionally, the new regulation would add three new, much-needed, protections: forbidding covered entities from including in their contracts 1) any clause that waives legal rights designed to protect consumers, 2) any clause that reserves to the covered person the right to unilaterally amend a material term of the contract, and 3) any clause that restrains the consumer’s free expression.

Codifying the application of the Credit Practices Rule is necessary to protect individuals and families from unfair and deceptive practices.