PROVIDENCE – R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin has joined a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general calling for the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its Acting Director Mick Mulvaney to continue protecting military service members against predatory lenders under the federal Military Lending Act, or MLA.
The coalition is urging the agency, created during the Obama administration, to reconsider its reported decision to stop examining lenders to ensure they are complying with the MLA. Enacted in 2006, the law protects military members and their families against exploitative lenders and loans, so service members are not overburdened with debt. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the authority to examine lenders’ compliance with the MLA to detect potential risks to consumers and ensure military members aren’t being offered illegal loans.
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This is especially important, according to Kilmartin’s office, for young servicemen and women who have less experience managing their own finances and who may be more vulnerable to predatory loans.
“The duty of protecting our nation is so important that anything we can do to help safeguard the finances of our servicemen and women and lessen their worry about the financial security of their families back home is worthwhile,” Kilmartin said in a statement. “I join my colleagues in strongly urging the [bureau] to continue its watchdog role over military lending practices.”
Kilmartin’s office said about 60 percent of military families report experiencing stress related to their financial condition. Service members in financial distress may have security clearance revoked and be compelled to leave the military, resulting in the loss of well-trained service members and additional financial burdens for the military, it added.
The coalition consists of attorneys general from 32 states and U.S. territories, including those from neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Scott Blake is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Blake@PBN.com.
