from Financial Predators

Washington, Jun 28, 2005 -

Today, U.S. Representative John R. Carter (TX-31) praised the House passed bill, H.R. 458, the Military Personnel Financial Services Protection Act.  The bill protects our nation’s military personnel from those seeking to take advantage of them financially.  Carter issued the following statement in response:

            “We have taken yet another step to keep this nation’s commitment to our men and women in uniform. This legislation will protect those who protect us, and will prevent them from falling victim to financial predators.

            “There are predators in the financial industry that look to profit from the sale of sub-standard insurance and investment products to military personnel. This legislation will help safeguard the financial futures of our Soldiers and their families.”

The Military Personnel Financial Services Protection Act:

• Creates a registry of banned agents and companies who are caught selling bad and/or unnecessary financial products and using predatory sales tactics;
• Prevents the sale of contractual fund mutual plans, which were taken off the civilian markets years ago due to high fees that are front-loaded and also which are uncompetitive compared with other products;
• Specifically targets payday lending companies whose clientele is at least 10 percent military personnel, preventing them from targeting military members with high-interest loans;
• Prohibits payday lenders from threatening to contact a borrower’s commanding officer or anyone in the borrower’s chain of command in an attempt to collect on a loan.