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Press Statement July 1, 2022

NAACP Supports Work to End Unfair, Deceptive, and Abusive Financial Acts or Practices

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The NAACP supports efforts to examine discrimination in every corner of the consumer financial marketplace, including credit reporting, collections, payments, remittances, and more.

Given the growing racial wealth gap, the NAACP is interested in data driven insights on how corporate investments have been targeted toward communities most in need of engagement by the financial sector. Investments by a range of banks and financial institutions in 2020 are needed, and important to the financial health of communities, and growth in the base of customers that use financial services.

It is questionable that instead of shoring up substantive programs focused on closing the racial wealth gap, the Chamber of Commerce and organizations that represent the banking industry have chosen to buy advertising to attack efforts by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to end unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP). 

Banks, and the trades that represent them, cannot extend public commitments to fighting discrimination while at the same time pushing the federal government to turn a blind eye to the very business practices that harm communities of colors they claimed to be fighting for in May of 2020.

For years, data reflect that unbanked and underbanked communities have experienced harm when engaging financial institutions, leading to mistrust and missed opportunities to grow and sustain wealth.  Financial services focused on closing the racial wealth gap should welcome full transparency in the operation of products and services within communities most in need of these products. 

Instead of ad campaigns, the NAACP encourages constructive engagement between consumers, federal stakeholders, and third parties engaged in financial inclusion to identify unfair practices that result in racial economic harm.

Investments in our communities need to be made with the goal of building financial capacity at every level of the Black ecosystem - transparently, with community input, appropriate consumer protections, and with measurable and transparent processes and outcomes.

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