Luetkemeyer to CFPB: Stick to Protecting Consumers, Stop Denigrating Entire Industries

Press Release

Today, Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03), Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra regarding the Bureau's recent public statements demonizing automobile lenders and servicers. Excerpts and the link to the full letter can be found below.

"On February 28 of this year your official twitter account, @chopracfpb, sent out the following: "No one ever wants to wake up to find that their car has been stolen. Given today's high prices for used cars, the CFPB is taking action to thwart illegal auto repossessions by auto lenders, investors, and servicers.' The tweet contained a link to a CFPB blog entitled "CFPB Moves to Thwart Illegal Auto Repossessions.'

"The tweet and this blog post indicate a trend amongst auto lenders, servicers, and investors to prematurely repossess cars solely based on the increase in the price of the vehicle since the beginning of the pandemic. Moreover, your tweet equates the repossessing a vehicle when contractually obligated payments are not made with theft. That is a gross mischaracterization that blurs the line between legal actions and the spike in crime we are seeing in cities across the U.S."

"This letter is the latest in a recent trend from your office making disparaging and derogatory statements about legally operating businesses. As the preeminent regulator of consumer financial products, making unfounded and intentionally damaging statements is well beneath the position you hold… Without the ability to obtain financing, many consumers would be forced to go without. It is important that you stick to the job of protecting consumers and leave behind the practice of denigrating an entire industry and the American citizens and consumers they employ."

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