Town hall in Virginia highlights importance of Consumer Bureau

Predatory lending and unfair banking practices were a hot topic in Charlottesville yesterday when community leaders and advocates met at the Jefferson-Madison Library to discuss consumer protection and defending Virginians from unfair banking practices.

The event included Pastor Joseph Chambers of the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors, former Sheriff of Fluvanna County Ryant Washington, David Irvin of Attorney General Herring’s office, Keo Chea of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Jane Dittmar of Delegate David Toscano’s office, Ed Mierzwiski of the Public Interest Research Group, Chris Monioudis of Senator Mark Warner’s office, Lisa Stewart of the Institute for Business in Society, Jay Speer of the Virginia Poverty Law Center, and others.

The group met to discuss best practices and the challenges facing consumer protection, distribute educational literature, and hear public comment in a town hall setting. Hosted by Fair Share in collaboration with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, US PIRG, and Attorney General Mark Herrings office, the goal of the town hall was to provide Virginians with the resources they need to take action against unfair banking practices. The CFPB and Director Cordray have been in the spotlight recently due to many Senate Republicans and the Trump administrations attempts to re-structure the consumer protection watchdog in a way that would make it more difficult to take action against predatory lending and other unfair banking practices.

Fair Share will be hosting its next town hall and round table in Fairfax County this May in collaboration with the CFPB in order to provide consumer protection resources throughout the state and foster dialogue around predatory lending and unfair banking practices.