Another Wolf to Keep the Sheep Safe

October 31, 2014 in Montana
Tags: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Payday Lending Reform, Richard Cordray

by lizard

Here’s a spooky story: Obama’s pick to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray, thinks a wolf should help protect the sheep:

A fairness-in-lending advocacy group is targeting Advance America CEO J. Patrick O’Shaughnessy as part of a name-and-shame campaign directed at top financial industry executives. Of the six executives profiled by Americans for Payday Lending Reform so far, their latest target has a unique credential: He’s also a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s consumer advisory board.

The CFPB is considering whether to draw up new regulations for an industry that advocates say traps consumers in debt by charging exorbitant interest rates.

“It’s hard to imagine how a someone who has made a career benefitting from high-interest lending will help usher in needed reforms if he thinks it will undercut his profit margin,” wrote Liz Ryan Murray, policy director of the left-leaning National People’s Action, which is producing the “Preyday Lenders” campaign. “And yet that seems to be exactly what the CFPB has asked him to do.”

Agency chief Richard Cordray earlier this year appointed O’Shaughnessy to a three-year term on the 31-member advisory board –which includes a mix of public interest attorneys, consumer advocates, academics, and executives representing non-profits, and the financial services industry, among others.

O’Shaughnessy, a former investment banker, heads one of the largest payday lending operations in the U.S., and is the board chair for Community Financial Services Association of America, an industry trade group.

After hearing about Mel Watt, this lovely Patrick O’Shaughnessy is just par for the course.

Maybe next week the Obama administration can create an Anger Management Czar and appoint Ray Rice.