Today, President Obama signed into law the most sweeping reforms of our financial system since the Great Depression and the strongest consumer protections in history.
Here are a few highlights:
- There’s now a single agency responsible for looking out for consumers: the Bureau for Consumer Financial Protections. Instead of seven agencies dealing with these issues part-time, one agency will be in charge of establishing clear rules of the road for banks, mortgage companies, payday lenders and credit card lenders.
- Mortgage brokers won’t make a higher commission by selling people mortgages that they can’t afford. This was a major factor in the recent housing crisis. Now brokers and banks have to take into consideration a borrower’s ability to repay before giving a home loan.
- You’ll be able to get a free credit score if you’re denied a loan, an apartment, or a job because of your credit, so you won’t be turned down without knowing why. Right now, you get one free credit report a year, but you can’t see your credit score for free, even if a lender or employer rejects your application because you have bad credit.
No more bailing out banks with our tax dollars, no more “too big to fail.” If a company’s in trouble because of risky gambles, it will have to liquidate — and do so before it can take down the rest of the financial system.
More details about what’s in this legislation can be found here.