Sarbanes to Push for Financial Privacy and Predatory Lending on Legislative Calendar

WASHINGTON- Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) told attendees of a Consumer Federation of America Financial Services Conference that financial privacy and predatory lending need to be attended to in the legislative arena. Though he admitted that he no longer controlled the committee’s agenda, he advocated that these two areas come before the committee during the next congressional session. Sarbanes told the consumer advocacy group, “I don’t think that the financial privacy issue has been sufficiently addressed in the sense of putting it to rest.” He suggested that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act should be revisited and emphasized Committee Chairman Richard Shelby’s (R-Ala.) interest in the issue of financial privacy. Sarbanes did note that the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which became law recently takes some positive steps to curb affiliate information sharing. However, he said, “We weren’t able to be as protective as I would have liked to have been in some areas.” The lawmaker had to leave the conference earlier than originally planned to attend the signing of H.R. 2622. The long-time senator acknowledged that two key items would likely have to come first to the Banking Committee: the mutual fund industry and oversight of the housing government sponsored enterprises. [email protected]