WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced that she has asked Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), to hold a conference of states to discuss the ideas in the March 26 outline of potential new standards and limitations on credit lines, installment loans, deposit advances, automobile-title secured loans and payday loans.
“The outline from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ignores the interests of the states and seeks to impose a one-size-fits-all federal approach,” Rutledge said. “If the Bureau moves ahead with its proposal, I fear that it will negate reasonable policies that Arkansas and other states currently have in place to protect consumers and at the same time allow the free market to provide needed services like credit lending. I am calling on Director Cordray, a former state attorney general, to recognize the need to hear from the states on these issues and to convene a conference as soon as possible before taking any further action.”
Rutledge believes that such a conference would show that Cordray has a commitment to cooperative federalism. It would additionally give the states an opportunity to discuss regulatory and enforcement systems.