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I want to thank all of our members. Nearly 6000 of you. Let me rephrase that. We have that many members but i dont know how many are watching. Everything that you have heard about the present moment is true pretty we are facing significant financial strain right now along with some of the other sectors. We hope youll consider during this time, by making a donation. By clicking the donate button at the bottom of the screen or make a donation online town hall, 44321. As well. Meanwhile, our partner booksellers have been hit hard by the negative effects of the covid19 outbreaks. They could use your support as well. And of course deepening your understanding of the tonights topic a month hope you will consider purchasing the book. Okay. Tonights bio. I realized it sort of worked backwards in time. I really didnt take the time to change that. So working backwards, is presently a lawyer and politician. Previously democratic nominee the governor of ohio in 2018. For that he served as the first director of the Consumer Financial sector in 2012 2017. Athletic women, is hard Ohio State Attorney general. And treasure are pretty 2019, he received a Financial Service champion award. In the u. S. Small business administration. Earlier in his career, he was an adjunct professor in the college of law. And he served as a state rep. For the 33rd ohio house district. It was also the first general in the history. It he still, was the editor in chief of the lot review. His book, watchdog, protect the consumers can save our families, our economy and our democracy. As a subject its nice talk. Please join me in welcoming him. Richard thank you and thank you to everybody in town all for making this format available during these challenging times. Im glad to have the chance to be with you virtually and to talk about my new book watchdog. Watchdog is a story that is very timely to our Society Today into our Economy Today as we move into another financial crisis, we need to brace ourselves for the same types of problems we had seen before. The book is about consumers. Watchdog. Who are consumers. Everyone of us is the menu goes into the Financial Market place everyday makes decisions and choices and is out of the billions of decisions that we make everyday that the economy of the niceties of america more powerful, most affluent economy. The world is ever seen. When i started the book, wanted to start with stories about the average consumers. Uni in the people we know, our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and sons and daughters. I want people to understand is consumers often find challenging situations in the sometimes get into problems that are not of their own making. Some are but theres many situations where people are misled or cheated or mistreated in the Financial Marketplace. And i start with a variety of those. Im talking about people who are using products that will use like credit cards. Like auto loans. If youre buying a car or a truck. Like mortgages, by your house. Very few people by house in cash predict Student Loans increasing for so many families throughout this country. Trying to finance Higher Education for the children of the red children. And people running into problems and they often are stuck predict they dont know where to go or turn predict they often find that when theyre dealing with large companies, they get no response so they get the runaround and they often cannot get satisfaction. That is alienating and creates offensive disrespect produced widespread. We all know those feelings of being on hold for long periods of time and nothing can be done about that. For this or that reason and often varies in the fine print. So this in nature of consumerism. Its important to know were not alone. You may feel like you they only one who did not understand that are the only one who this happened. Credit card spending is ubiquitous among americans , auto loans are a big part of peoples lives where people drive to work. Mortgages are the way in which we buy houses and they are significant and Student Loans are a part of life and people can carry those loans for years. People have a lot more opportunity that credit provides its a bigger piece of the lives and this brings us to the financial crisis of 2008 that was widespread predatory mortgage lending causing many families to lose their homes affecting the entire economy this led to reforms to prevent that from happening again and it created as part of that reform and adf put forward by then professor, now senator Elizabeth Warren to protect consumers the straightforward analogy that was a leading argument for many that we are at a point it is basically impossible with a 20 percent chance to burst into flames and burn down their house that it was entirely illegal to sell them a mortgage with a 20 percent chance of putting them into foreclosure. That we were not providing protection for financial products. And then to focus on the big banks and Financial Companies themselves, making sure they foster over time. Thats important with Consumer Protection come it will not be good for any of the customers. At the same time its important for everyone to turn around 180 degrees and realize if they were mistreated in the marketplace something was wrong and we needed to rebalance the marketplace of consumers have the protection support that they need if we have strong consumers in our society we will have a stronger economy. And it is mortgage lending and the Consumer Finance market to upset the economy in 29 2009 2010. Its about Consumer Finance and how it has changed in the new Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau into protect people across america. Something thats important to realize as Consumer Finance has expanded in society so has the financial sector. Financial services is a bigger part of the economy and doubling in size and it is a staggering figure almost 40000 per person of Consumer Debt today and that the Financial Services industry especially in the quarters of power in washington theres more money spent on Campaign Contributions by the financial industry more than any other part of the economy. If you have that agency Whose Mission is to make sure the oversee the Financial Companies and hold them accountable for mistreating customers, there is bound to be significant push back. I told that political story in the book and the fight that preceded my time in washington and then that secondary complaint that developed and as the first nominee and as they battle to try to weaken the agency and then we come back later in the book where i talk about what it was like to serve almost all full year under the Trump Administration then to push for the agency to hold people accountable and the new Trump Administration has the regulatory mindset and talk about the battles back and forth. And then not doing the job that i saw and understood that john to be. And then to rebalance the marketplace to give consumers a louder voice in the economy. Its a young servicemember and his father. He went into the service and going into basic training and was leaving home for the first time and was going to be on his own for the first time. Those people are targets and financial creditors know that that these are unsophisticated naive and unexperienced consumers but a guaranteed paycheck from the us government. So then to congregate around military bases and has been described in as a seminar coming up stream to spine and with high cost loans and products especially electronics this is what happened he wanted like many young people who are now making money who wanted to buy the first set of wheels and found a lender that looked like a legitimate lender it all sounds very legitimate and when he walked out of the lender showplace he bought a used dodge ram truck it was costing him 70 percent of his takehome income. Some of that was undisclosed payments which is against the law, some that ways charged and didnt understand that. But that is what he was saddled with and for years to come most of the takehome pay would pay for the truck. Input deployed overseas he turn the finances over to his father and explained his situation and the outrage but when he tried to work with the lender he was a did he sign the paperwork . Yes he did case closed at the end of the story or so they thought and for many people like him he was stuck. His father did not let her rest he complained to everybody he could find and found his way to the cfpb and he filed a complaint with the bureau. Our folks investigated and they found the undisclosed fees any addon products that he was deceived in the marketing of those products brought enforcement action and we model that with the nationwide string of lenders and the same thing had happened with 50000 other servicemembers we brought that enforcement action and recovered millions of dollars back to the consumers who were harmed and to reform the terms of their contract we fix the problem for ari in the servicemembers that is the good work holding these lenders to account for going even one step further to understand the pattern of a problem and how to fix it. We found our he was told he had to have the loan come out of his military sally one salary Allotment Program so the lender got the money before it ever went to his account and he lost control of his own budget and could not prioritize payment that month if he preferred. The Allotment Program was created years ago as a convenience for when they were deployed overseas. Before the advent of Online Banking which is now so easy and convenient and debt collectors began using that system as a onesided collection to all requiring them to sign up and didnt realize that was an option. So they went to the pentagon and created a task force to work with us and ended up reforming the Allotment Program to make it illegal for high Cost Electronics and purchases for servicemembers. And then to provide the muscle and analyze the markets and with tens of thousands of others who were infected and a broader systemic problem. My point in the book, watchdog that the Consumer Bureau is emblematic of what we can do with it government when it is it focused on those at the top of the pyramid that focused on middle class and working class americans and we can put americans were consumers first to see that they get a fair shake. That something we need to do in Society Today and how democracy works. And how consumers can save not only the families and the economy by strengthening the backbone of the economy but also democracy giving people a stake to understand government can do something for them to make it better for them in the kind of structural change we could use across the entire government to make it as good as its people. I will take a break there and open up to the questions and answers sure you have a lot of questions talk about whatever you want including the Current Crisis affects current consumers or anything from the book or what i said tonight. Have added. At it. Hello. I am doing your video. We are waiting for questions and answers. The first question comes from kevin is there a way to change the perception as zero sound battle against business interest were consumers win and businesses must lose . Yes in fact i talk about this in my book the reality is when you create evenhanded oversight of the market as a whole and provide more protection for consumers somebody else gets the advantage and that is lawabiding businesses trying to do the right thing by customers that often have to compete against other businesses willing to cut, quarters and violate the law what happens when you are a Better Business like the Better Business bureau trying to do the right thing and suddenly somebody has an advantage by breaking the law . We either break the wall law with them or lose market share this happened a lot in the runup to the financial crisis there were responsible mortgage lenders losing out to irresponsible mortgage lenders misleading customers about a teaser rate and if it would remain over the life of the loan or other products that allow them to sell higher cost mortgages than the buyer by were deserved but the traditional lenders losing market share. Better oversight of the market better law and order actually serves the businesses dont have to compete against those. Thats one way its important but coming at of the financial crisis we need to restore confidence and understand it wasnt rigged i have confidence that they have a fair shake and a people dont have that confidence they will not participate and example is remittance transfers International Money transfers often to loved ones or family members if they dont have confidence in the market or the terms will be fair and they attacked the money into suitcases and it creates a black market if you create confidence and sensible set of rules that its better for the market as a whole not only for consumers but for the businesses to take that view and serve them a Strong Customer service. Do you have any concern the high Interest Rates permitted under state law like 12 percent in washington with prevailing rates are also low . There is borrower abuse that has to do with the sluggishness of legal changes in society. Those should be keyed to the going market rates. Right now 12 percent is when Interest Rates were much higher that was an unfair rate in a situation where the average market based bank account pays zero. 05 percent. That is the unfortunate aspect of the law that needs to be more nimble and cap uptodate and that is wrong. By the way the 12 percent Interest Rate which is high no question, pales in comparison to getting a payday loan or an online loan that is after one offered to triple digit Interest Rates i talk about the payday lending industry there was bitter fight that led to a rule we adopted for payday lending around the country to require them to make a reasonable assessment people can repay the loan before making the loan they thought that to the nail and under the current deal the current leadership is trying to undo the rule and that is the unfortunate direction i hope people will speak out against that but that will be tied up in the courts for some time many states have no payday lending the other two thirds are very high rates and then all states have the online loans find their way sometimes illegally but trap them in a cycle of debt. As a followup if anybody knows the story of Washington State better please correct me or add some detail in the questions, but washington had its own run with payday lending just a few years ago with a big push to regulate the industry. I remember being baffled at the time while a handful of legislators willing to fight so hard for industry was so aligned against the interests of their constituents. These were a handful of cases legislators who otherwise had strong track records of service to the underwater dog for the lack way to put it how has payday lending been able to develop the beachhead and legislatures around the country and hold on in the face where it has . A phenomenon ive seen around the country and there are two causes. The first there are a lot of legislators who are supported by the payday lending industry to Cam