Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Seeks to Protect Military Families from Predatory Lending

Holly Petraeus, head of the Office of Servicemember Affairs (OSA) at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), testified recently before the House Committee on Veteran Affairs on the importance of protecting servicemembers from predatory lending practices.

Petraeus highlighted the grave financial difficulties facing military members and their families, commenting that “servicemembers consider their finances to be the second largest source of stress in their life, behind career concerns but ahead of deployments, health, family, and war.” The OSA was created to ensure that military families have access to the resources and services necessary to help them overcome these challenges.

Petraeus confirmed that the OSA is already making considerable strides toward fulfilling the needs of the overburdened military community. Petraeus and Elizabeth Warren, assistant to the president and special advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the CFPB, facilitated a number of roundtable discussions that included financial experts and leaders from the military communities, the first step toward creating a comprehensive program that includes financial education and protection for servicemembers.

Petraeus also spoke to the importance of enforcing the Servicemember Civil Relief Act (SCRA), a federal law that offers financial protection to servicemembers on active duty by limiting interest rates and preventing foreclosures. The OSA recently sent a letter to the 25 largest mortgage banks, urging their CEOs to act responsibly in accordance with the SCRA.

“One way to help military families is to enforce the laws that are already on the books to protect them, and to hold to account those who ignore them,” Petraeus said.