Protecting Consumers News Releases

While Congress debates whether or not to hike interest rates on student loans, students, labor, business and other leaders have pointed to the need to provide affordable opportunities to attend college. The Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG) and the Arizona Students’ Association (ASA) are urging members of Arizona’s Congressional delegation to not double the student loan interest rate. The following fact sheets speak to the situation in Arizona and across the country.

Students and families in Arizona are set to celebrate college graduations as the threat of doubled student loan interest rates looms. If Congress fails to act by July 1, 2012 the interest rate for Direct Subsidized Stafford Loans will double, rising to 6.8 percent. 7.4 million American students will see the interest rates on their student loans double, effectively raising the average cost of college by over $1,000 for millions of students and their families. Student loan debt has already overshadowed credit card debt. The U.S. PIRG, the Young Invincibles, the Center for American Progress and Campus Progress released a joint report on the looming threat of a major hike in the federal student loan interest rate.

Today's settlement by the U.S., Attorney General Horne and 48 other state attorneys general with the five biggest mortgage servicers – the big banks Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase – along with Ally Financial, is an important and enforceable first step toward holding the big banks accountable for not only wrecking the economy but using a variety of unfair foreclosure practices to ruin the lives of millions of Americans and, in many cases, taking their homes illegally.

Today, President Obama took a bold and important step to protect consumers from financial tricks and traps by announcing a recess appointment of his well-qualified nominee, Richard Cordray, to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The confirmation of a director also grants the bureau, which has been running since July 2011, all of its new powers to protect consumers.