White House Hits at Brownback Autodealer Loans Amendment

Just hours before the Senate is due to vote on a non-binding directive to its committee conferees on exempting loan-issuing car dealers from financial regulatory reform, Jen Psaki, the White House deputy communications director, has written a blog post slamming the measure:

The President has been clear on this issue, repeatedly urging members of the Senate to fight efforts of the special interests and their lobbyists to weaken consumer protections. The fact is, auto dealer-lending is an $850 billion industry, which is larger than the entire credit card industry and they make nearly 80 percent of the automobile loans in our country.

Is there any question that these lenders should be subject to the same standards as any local or community bank that provides loans?

Auto dealer-lenders sell auto loans to working families every single day, and while most dealers are no doubt above board, some cannot resist the bigger profits that come from inflating rates, hiding fees, and tacking on over-priced add-ons.

These profits can lead some dealers to treat their customers unfairly. There are countless stories of hard-working people who are never even contacted when their car loans are promised by dealers and then fail to go through forcing them to borrow at a higher interest rate or to swallow the cost already paid toward the purchase of their car while giving up the vehicle.

At this point, the Senate is not expected to advise its conferees to fight for the exemption, proposed as an amendment to Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) but not voted on. The House bill does not give the Consumer Financial Protection Agency oversight over car dealers that make loans.