In early July, Americans for Financial Reform joined with the Center for Responsible Lending in releasing a poll which showed widespread support for the Dodd-Frank Act and the resulting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to the poll, 91 percent of Americans say that it is important to regulate financial services and products and ensure that they are fair to consumers.
“You might think that the further we get from the financial crisis, the less concern we would find. But that has not happened,” said Gary Kalman, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending. “There continues to be strong public support for tough regulation and oversight of the financial services industry.”
By nearly a 3:1 margin, those polled wanted to see more oversight and regulation for financial companies, rather than less as has been advocated by various congressmen recently. Further, fewer than a quarter believed that tightly regulating the financial industry would hurt the U.S. economy.
The poll has been conducted since 2012 and support for the CFPB has remained consistent. This year, support for the bureau was 75 percent, and included bipartisan support, with 85 percent of Democrats supported the CFPB and agreed it was needed, along with 74 percent of independents and 66 percent of Republicans saying the same.
Over two-thirds of voters — including nearly three quarters of Republicans — favor keeping the requirement that mortgage lenders must fully verify borrowers’ ability to repay before issuing a mortgage.
The survey was of 1,000 likely voters and was conducted by Lake Research Partners.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) would be within the minority of Republicans who aren’t quite so sure about stricter regulation of financial services, and has constantly advocated for oversight of the CFPB.
“Whether we like it or not, Dodd-Frank is the single most sweeping rewrite of our financial services laws since the New Deal. We would be negligent if we did not constantly monitor its implementation and impact,” Hensarling said.
Hensarling has been a leading critic of the CFPB and the Dodd-Frank Act, frequently pointing to lack of positive results from the law.
“Instead,” Hensarling continued, “five years later the big banks are bigger, the small banks are fewer and the economy remains moribund. Low- and moderate-income Americans have lost free checking, seen small business lines of credit evaporate, and it’s now harder for them to achieve financial independence.”
Hensarling is scheduled to make a speech to mark the anniversary of Dodd-Frank entitled “Dodd-Frank Five Years Later: An America Less Free, Less Prosperous and Less Stable” at 2:30 p.m. July 21 at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.