4/25/2018 Gillibrand Announces Major New Legislation To Create A Postal Bank To Wipe Out Predatory Payday Lending Industry Practices, Ensure All Americans Have Access To Basic Banking Services
Traditional Banks Do Not Serve Millions of Americans, Particularly Low-Income Americans, Communities of Color, and Rural Communities, Forcing Them to Use High-Cost Alternatives Such As Predatory Payday Lending and Trapping Them in a Cycle of Poverty; Gillibrand’s Postal Banking Bill Would Provide Low-Cost, Basic Financial Services to Millions of Americans Who Have Been Denied Access to Bank Services
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced major new legislation to create a Postal Bank, which would establish a retail bank in all of the U.S. Postal Service’s 30,000 locations. The Postal Bank would effectively end predatory payday lending industry practices overnight by giving low-income Americans, particularly communities of color and rural communities, access to basic banking services that they currently don’t have. The lack of access to traditional banking services makes it nearly impossible for low-income Americans to escape the cycle of poverty because they are often forced to spend large percentages of their income to cash their paychecks or pay back high-interest predatory payday loans.
“Millions of Americans are being forced into payday lending schemes that only exacerbate their money problems, and Congress has the ability to wipe out these predatory practices right now by creating a Postal Bank that would be accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said Senator Gillibrand. “For millions of families who have no access or limited access to a traditional bank, the simple act of cashing a paycheck or taking out a small loan to fix a car or pay the gas bill can end up costing thousands of dollars in interest and fees that are nearly impossible to pay off. The Postal Bank would solve this problem by putting a retail bank branch in all of the U.S. Postal Service’s 30,000 locations, providing low-cost, basic financial services to all Americans, and effectively ending predatory lending nationwide. Politicians in Washington have taken millions of dollars from payday lenders to help protect this industry’s predatory behavior on hardworking families, and it has to stop.”
“Postal banking was America’s most successful experiment in financial inclusion. Today, there are many communities across the country that are banking deserts. The only financial service providers are fringe lenders and check cashers whose business model relies on the poor paying more for banking services than anyone else. This is a threat to our democracy. Yet post offices serve all of these communities regardless of cost and without exploitation. Postal banking can provide safe, accessible, and much-needs financial services to the most struggling communities in our country. It will make it less expensive to be poor,” said Mehrsa Baradaran, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law and an expert on Postal Banking who authored How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation and the Threat to Democracy.
Gillibrand’s legislation would establish a retail bank in all of the U.S. Postal Service’s 30,000 locations, including the 1,506 locations in New York State. Post Offices are located in nearly every community, including many rural and urban low-income communities that have seen many recent bank closures. The Postal Bank would be accessible to Americans of all income levels, and would specifically benefit low-income households that have limited or no access to traditional banks.
The Postal Bank would effectively wipe out predatory payday lending industry practices because low-income workers would be able to take out low-interest, small-dollar loans from the Postal Bank instead of being forced to rely on predatory payday lenders. High-cost, predatory financial products like payday loans cost the average underserved household 10 percent, or $2,412, of their gross income in fees and interest. This adds up to about $100 billion of lost savings for low-income families across the country, and results in diminished funding for rent, food, and childcare, as well as an inability to build credit. Under Gillibrand’s bill, any American could open an account at the Postal Bank.
Specifically, the Postal Bank would offer the following services:
- Small-Dollar Checking Accounts: Low-cost checking accounts for direct deposits, check cashing, and bill paying.
- Small-Dollar Savings Accounts: Interest-bearing savings accounts that build wealth and could be used in combination with other federal, state, and local savings programs.
- Small-Dollar Loans: Low-fee and low-interest rate micro-loans for customers.
- Transactional Services: Debit cards, low-fee cash machines, online services, and bill payments.
- Remittance Services: Domestic and international wire transfers.
well MS. Wong not one word about prefunding, Only I didn’t cash my phony POS. It would be worth giving up my retirement and health insurance to see people like you fend for themselves. All you care about is the “buy out” if it comes. What about your fellow workers? You don’t care, for you are the only one in the world. Just you, no one else. just like the coal miners. In WV. the UMWU supports Don Blankenship. He owned Massey Energy and was convicted in Federal Court and spent one year in the joint after an explosion at one of his mines. Twenty nine miners died. So do they care? No, they just want to mine coal. They don’t even have any self respect. So just go and take your buy out and President Dump will take care of you. Just because you don’t care about anyone else , doesn’t mean our leader doesn’t care about you. You will prosper.
all those words and you did not sneak in that canard about prefunding….8 years of bathhouse barry and he did not lift a finger to help the PO. under W Bush I got two checks for $300 each……bet you cashed yours phony POS! bring on the audit…..only sane thing in last 30 years that has happened in this dump! Go Trump! Buyout is coming!
Yes, this country is dumber and poorer with President Dump and his Bernie Madoff want to be. I thought ex President Forrest Gump was terrible. Starts a war over his ” Weapons of mass deception”. The Gumper was a saint compared to our current leader. Have faith in your leader, don’t worry he will see that his supporters become rich! And if they fail, tough. Just as Herbert Spencer once said ” The survival Of The Fittest”. If you fail it is god’s will. When you stand in the unemployment line just count your investment portfolio. That should last a long time.
You bunch of sorry a.. losers! All you do is complain and act like the PO is such a bad place to work! But you still haven’t resigned, or lucky you didn’t get fired. Shut up and do your job and we’d all be better off.
I just love hearing from the supporters of President Dump. No matter what he says or does it’s ok. As long as someone else is screwed it’s great. Different story when it’s your turn!
She’s knows damn well,that this has no chance,what-so-ever;of any passing any passing in Retard-Washington,DC. Besides,what the hell does the postal service(USPS) ,possibly know about banking,anyways? National anti-usuary laws,would be much more effective. And much more doable. Many U.S. states,already have limits,on interest-rates. But,they appear,often NOT to be locally enforced.
Dumber and poorer!!
Not good . The Postal Service needs to clean up all of the corruption. Also Sexual Misconduct is really bad in the Postal Service . Clean the inside then offer new suggestions.
We know the postal service won’t be allowed to start a savings bank. The Dump administration just wants the big businessmen to run the nation. The president’s lackey, Mr. Mulvaney , the head of the Consumer Protect Agency, has met with the banking executives and told them how to avoid his agency. The president’s supporters just think that is more than right. the government must protect businesses from those nasty consumers. The way must be made easy so business can steal from the careless voters. People run their lives based on emotions, not on intellect. People care more on the idea of getting even with their perceived enemy than facing reality. They don’t care about being screwed over as long as their enemy is hurt. Take away their retirement, health care, job rights, their dignity. They don’t care. Then one day they realize it’s their turn!
They could start by firing YOU!
You really want the current postal managers to be in charge of something like this? Does Gilli have any idea what this would cost? How much deeper do you think this will send the USPS into a black hole? Gilli is trying to make a name for herself on the back of an already broke USPS. Fire half the current management, or more, treat the workforce like human beings and you might have a chance.
Yeah- cuz I totally want the P.O. handling my $. Really? What a joke
Eliminating predatory lending is the focus here, I suppose, and I am all for outlawing all these types of businesses. You see it on TV. They run ads. They use the USPS to send junk mail across state lines like from Oklahoma, where these payday advance loan sharks are still in business into western Arkansas to try to lure the poor and impoverished over to their “store” and pay incredible interest that would embarrass a Mafia loan shark. But people can get desperate and sometimes feel they have no alternative.
That’s what makes these crooks their money – desperation and usury laws that are downright criminal, thanks to the states that allow this crap. Why states don’t pass their own laws to outlaw these places like Arkansas did is a question of pay offs to state legislators. And U.S. Reps and Senators have been known to accept campaign contributions to look the other way.
This only puts people in far worse situations than they were. Granted, many are drug addicts, drunks, or otherwise very irresponsible people who can’t manage a dime, but sometimes I know there are good folk out there who just get shit on time and time again and they become victims, too.
The post here from “President Trump” is absolute bullshit. Republicans love this stuff – they are the ones who want to destroy the middle class and create a society of the ultra rich and ultra poor. They have no empathy for the hard times people can face, and even poor Republicans can’t get it through their heads that misfortune can attack the best of us. Nobody is more predatory and anti working class than Republicans, but the “President” here deflects the issue and accuses Democrats of wanting to siphon from the USPS. Well, you genius, which party in 2006 implemented the pre-funding for retirement law to be paid for retirees in the USPS for the next 75 years so THEY could steal from that fund? It was George W. Bush and the Republicans, that’s who. But you and your beloved GOP never do anything wrong, do you?
I agree until you bring up the prefunding. The votes were almost unanimous. However since they were voice votes, there are no records on how each individual Congressperson voted. Democrats had the opportunity to repeal this legislation when they had a majority during the Obama administration but chose not to.
Neither party cares about ‘we the people.’
The clown show that is the USPS can’t even deliver all the mail every day without dumping it in the garbage, bushes, etc. and they think people are going to trust them with their banking ?
Idiots.
The PMG and Board of Governors should really think about this……..
You’re going to have 30,000 post offices act as a bank for these communities, with no security guard in the lobby to prevent getting robbed??
This is NOT a smart plan.
The thought of our clerks, who can barely sell a money order, handling customers banking transactions is truly horrifying.
just another front $$$$$$$$$ for the Demonrats to steal from! heck social security and po are broke…..time for a new scheme. guess she learned this from her Father Rutnick…….bag man for the NY State Senate…..how do you think she got her job? payback to the old man from the Schumer tribe!