Predatory car loans are about to lose critical governmental oversight, and GM can do something about it.
Sometimes fairness needs to be enforced, and that's just what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does when it comes to racial discrimination in car loans. But now their important work is under attack, and we need GM to stop the onslaught.
Without strong oversight, Black and Latino auto customers end up charged higher interest rates compared to white borrowers, just because of the way they look.
Most auto dealer profits are made not from selling cars, but from bumped-up interest rates on car loans. Dealers (and the lenders they work with) have a huge incentive to charge as high rates as they can get away with - and it is non-white car buyers who end up hardest hit.
Since 2013, the agency has handed out $18 million in fines and over $136 million in refunds to Black and Latino Americans who were charged more in interest than whites with identical credit histories. It's clear the agency has done its job, and now we're seeing the backlash.
GM is knee-deep with the lobby groups pushing hard to put the CFPB on the chopping block in Congress.
GM has to decide - either it lets these industry groups promote racist car lending policies in its name, or it leverages its influence to stop the well-funded attack and stand up for what's right. Let's make that choice clear as day.
We can get GM to do the right thing, and it will make a difference. When the Confederate Flag debate was raging in South Carolina, over 30 thousand SumOfUs Members mobilized to urge Adidas and BMW, the biggest corporations in the state, to call for the removal of the hateful symbol.
And if we come together to call on General Motors to speak up against racism now, we can protect hundreds of thousands of families from racial discrimination.
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More information:
Putting an End to Abusive Car Loans, The New York Times, June 13, 2015
Oppose H.R. 1737, the "Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act", Open Letter, Sept 22, 2015