OBAMA PROPOSES FINANCIAL WATCHDOG AGENCY
The Obama administration is responding to the American public’s outcry for help against credit card and associated businesses unfair trade practices and is posed to do something about it. The president asked Congress on Tuesday June 30 to create a new agency to regulate and even to police if necessary the fine print on credit card bills and mortgage documents. Under the agencies purview would be the determination of what will be a fair cap on the fees, penalties and interest rates allowed.
Under the Consumer Financial Protection Agency the watchdog would be responsible for regulating credit cards, mortgages and savings accounts and determining the rates and methods they operate under. In a prepared statement the president said, “Those ridiculous contracts with pages of fine print that no one can figure out, those things will be a thing of the past.” New regulations which were passed in Congress this spring will be part of the agency’s job to implement Obama said. A new addition to come under the agency’s domain that the president has on his list will be the high interest rate pay-day loan arena, as well as the terms on savings, checking, and debit card accounts, which was not included in the bill passed by Congress.
Included in the president’s plan lenders would be required to apply warning labels to risky products such as the balloon type mortgages that he sees as having caused so many Americans to fall into foreclosure, as well as the other non traditional types of lending such as “payday loans” and other credit products.
While the president has been very vocal on how he sees the need for increased governmental responsibility and oversight in the financial markets many opponents are equally vocal that the increase of regulations may be the cause of increased costs as a whole in the banking industry to the customers and limit the type and amount of financing the public will have available to them.
However it is widely thought the president will not be swayed on the issue, just as he sees credit counseling a requirement for any person seeking to file for bankruptcy, in that he believes that many people can avoid foreclosure with the help of a reputable credit counseling agency that will assist them with debt management, budget planning, debt consolidation or debt settlement if necessary and avoid bankruptcy altogether. The idea being that informed and educated consumers given the right information and instruction will then be able to manage their debt and lead their lives in a productive and fruitful manner.
This also ties in directly with recent administration tax relief proposals. IT would in essence provide tax debt relief for Americans who have been put into a financial hardship due to a foreclosure or unforeseen financial hardship. The last thing anyone needs is a wage garnishment or tax seizure and quite frankly it only slows down the process of helping our country turn around this economic depression. Tax debt is a shocking reality for many Americans, not just the politicians from both sides of the isle of late. It’s no surprise that millions of Americans are looking to tax debt professionals to help them avoid a nasty IRS audit or tax lien.
Tags: debt consolidation, debt management, tax debt, tax relief