Appleseed joins comments to CFPB in support of the Remittances Rule

Appleseed recently signed on to a letter containing formal comments to the CFPB on the remittances rule. For further information, please contact Annette LoVoi, Appleseed’s Director of Financial Access and Asset Building.

June 19, 2018

Acting Director Mick Mulvaney
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
1700 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20552

Re: Agency/Docket Number: Docket No. CFPB-2018-0011 — Request for Information Regarding the Bureau’s Adopted Regulations and New Rulemaking Authorities: Remittances Rule

Dear Acting Director Mulvaney,

The undersigned consumer, community, civil rights and legal services groups submit these comments in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”)’s Request for Information (“RFI”) regarding its adopted regulations and new rulemaking authorities. In these comments we urge you not to revisit or weaken the CFPB’s remittance rule. We have joined other comments on other regulations.

I. Introduction

The undersigned organizations support the CFPB’s remittance rule and urge the bureau not to revisit or weaken it. “A ‘remittance transfer’ means the electronic transfer of funds requested by a sender to a designated recipient that is sent by a remittance transfer provider.”

The experience of our organizations is that the remittance rule is working and is protecting money sent abroad and the financial security of U.S. residents who send this money. Prior to the remittance rule, customers had inadequate up-front information about fees and exchange rates needed to compare the cost of different services. Our surveys show that consumers now have more confidence when sending remittances. Moreover, the volume of remittances us up but the cost is down since the CFPP rule was adopted. The average cost of sending remittances has fallen to 5.67% in 2018 down from 6.75% in 2013.

Immigrants are more likely to be taken advantage of and less likely to feel empowered to assert their legal rights than other members of our society. Therefore, they are more vulnerable to both the mistakes and the deliberate malfeasance of those with whom they do business. Congress passed the statute requiring consumer protections for remittances in Section 1073, the Dodd-Frank Act, in a deliberate attempt to provide more protections to all remittance senders, including immigrants.

These regulations are required to be issued by statute, and much of what is in the regulations is specified in the statute.

Read the full text of the comment letter here.