Responsible Lending; Responsible Borrowing

What do people do when they need money quickly? Their car needs costly repairs so they can get to work. A medical emergency has resulted in a […]

How payday lenders skirt the law

The facts about how payday lenders trap working families in debt are shocking: 19 million families use payday loans each year. One in four of those borrowers […]

Predatory lenders disproportionately target women, new study shows

It’s Shark Week. No, not the Discovery Channel’s homage to the denizens of the deep, but rather the annual media storm from consumer advocates who oppose the […]

New poll reveals overwhelming support for strict regulation of payday lenders

More than seven out of ten Americans want stronger regulation to rein in the predatory practices of payday lenders according to a survey released on June 15. […]

Submit comments to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau on proposed rule designed to ban abusive lending practices

The Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP) urges Maine individuals and organizations to submit comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) about its proposed rule designed to […]

Payday loans continue to injure consumers

This week MECEP urged federal regulators to establish strong protections against abuses by payday lenders. Their loosely regulated, short-term, unsecured loans trap people in a cycle of […]

Federal legislation would protect payday lending industry at the expense of Maine consumers

MECEP has joined hundreds of civil rights, consumer, labor, faith, veterans, seniors, and community organizations across the nation to strongly urge its Congressional Delegation to oppose H.R. […]

Department of Defense moves to protect service members and their families from abusive creditors

A soldier returns from a tour of duty in Afghanistan to find his car repossessed in his absence. A sailor on patrol in the Persian Gulf receives […]

Complaints from military consumers about payday loans have soared in recent years