Fredericksburg, Va.— Virginia Organizing leaders will visit Washington, D.C. on Thursday, April 7 to attend the Senate Banking Committee hearing where Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Richard Cordray will be testifying. Virginia Organizing supports a strong CFPB to decrease lending abuses by small dollar short-term loans, otherwise known as payday, car title, and open-end consumer loans.

Duane Edwards, a Virginia Organizing State Governing Board member and member of the Fredericksburg Chapter plans to attend this hearing to show his support for the CFPB.

“Companies that provide these short-term, high interest loans are exploiting lending rules and people in difficult situations to make money,” said Edwards. “We expect banks, credit unions, and other mainstream lenders to play by certain rules that limit annual interest rates, require basic underwriting to ensure people have the ability to pay the loans back, and disclose important repayment information — we should require this of all lenders.”

Pete Perdue, a Virginia Organizing member in Nelson County who has been working to reduce predatory lending in his community will also be present for the hearing. “Virginia Organizing wants U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to support a strong CFPB to ensure that financially vulnerable people are not being taken advantage of and getting caught in endless cycles of debt,” said Perdue.

“The CFPB has been protecting consumers from the day it was founded in 2011,” said Edwards. “Virginia Organizing is asking Senators Warner and Kaine to support a strong CFPB and let this agency continue protecting consumers from bad banking and lending practices. It’s agencies like the CFPB that keep us out of another mortgage crisis.”

To interview a spokesperson for Virginia Organizing, please contact Amanda Pohl at 804-337-1912 or amanda@virginia-organizing.org.