Friday, December 11, 2009 STATEMENT OF NEW
YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER JONATHAN MINTZ ON THE
PASSAGE OF H.R. 4173 WHICH WOULD CREATE, IN PART, THE CONSUMER FINANCIAL
PROTECTION AGENCY (CFPA) “I congratulate
Chairman Frank and the House of Representatives for passing landmark legislation
today that would – for the first time – create a powerful federal agency focused
solely on protecting consumers from unsafe products and predatory practices in
the financial marketplace. If the Senate follows suit, President Obama’s
Consumer Financial Protection Agency will protect consumers across the nation
who have every right to expect a fair playing field when navigating financial
products and services like any other. As the nation’s largest and most
aggressive municipal consumer protection agency, the New York City Department of
Consumer Affairs will continue to work with Congress and the Administration to
ensure the enactment of the CFPA with the authority it needs to
succeed.”
Thursday, November 12, 2009 STATEMENT OF NEW
YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER JONATHAN MINTZ ON NEW
FEDERAL OVERDRAFT PROTECTION RULES “This past
Spring, the Department of Consumer Affairs recommended that the Federal Reserve
create new overdraft rules to make sure consumers affirmatively choose, or ‘opt
in’ to, fee-based overdraft protection services instead of being automatically
enrolled into these costly so-called ‘courtesies.’ Consumer protection agencies
like ours, which believe the most critical component of a free and fair market
is consumer choice, know that today the Federal Reserve scored an important win
for consumers.
Monday, August 17, 2009 DEPARTMENT OF
CONSUMER AFFAIRS’ OFFICE OF FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT AWARDS $180,000 TO COMMUNITY
ORGANIZATIONS TO MONITOR AND ANALYZE FINANCIAL EDUCATION EFFECTIVENESS IN NEW
YORK CITY The Department of Consumer Affairs’
Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) today awarded more than $180,000 to 16
community-based organizations that provide financial education to New Yorkers in
need. The 2009 Evaluation Improvement Awards will help these organizations
improve the data collection and evaluation processes of their financial
education services by tracking basic data including the number of people the
organizations serve and any critical milestones achieved by clients, such as
opening a bank account, reviewing a credit report or completing a screening for
public benefits. For the first time, organizations also will be reporting basic
demographics of those using financial education services, providing insights
into which communities are most in need of additional help. Such important
information has never before been reported in a consistent way or at such a
citywide scope, and will assist OFE in its work to increase the impact of
financial education for New Yorkers. Award recipients will submit reports to OFE
on financial education classes, workshops, counseling sessions and telephone
hotlines on a quarterly basis for two years.
Thursday, August 6, 2009 DEPARTMENT OF
CONSUMER AFFAIRS RELEASES REPORT REVEALING NEW YORKERS WITH LOW INCOMES CAN AND
WILL SAVE WHEN GIVEN THE RIGHT BANKING PRODUCTS The Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) today released the
first-year results of the City’s $aveNYC Account Program pilot, which found
that, contrary to commonly held beliefs, individuals with low and very low
incomes can and will save when given simple and safe banking products. The
Department’s evaluation of the pilot program, entitled The $aveNYC Account:
Innovation in Asset Building, revealed that despite an average annual household
income of roughly $15,000, 61 percent of program participants contributed at
least $500 to their $aveNYC Account, totaling more than $73,000 in savings by
the end of the first year. As part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s aggressive
anti-poverty strategy implemented under the Center for Economic Opportunity,
DCA’s Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) launched the $aveNYC Account to
examine how the City could encourage savings – a predictor of financial
stability – in communities with low incomes through a privately funded City
matching program. Families earning less than $45,000 and individuals earning
less than $20,000 were eligible to open a $aveNYC Account when filing their
taxes at participating Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites. Individuals
who left the initial deposit in the accounts for one year received a 50 percent
match, up to $250, in addition to the 2 to 3 percent interest the savings
accounts earned. The program is funded through private donations made to the
Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City.
Monday, May 11, 2009 MAYOR BLOOMBERG
OPENS THREE NEW FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT CENTERS IN BROOKLYN, MANHATTAN AND
QUEENS Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today
opened three new Financial Empowerment Centers which will offer free, one-on-one
financial education and counseling to low-income New York City residents. An
important tool in the City’s Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan, the new
Financial Empowerment Centers located in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens follow
the successful pilot center in the Bronx launched by Mayor Bloomberg last
summer. At a time when many New Yorkers are finding it harder to make ends meet,
the counselors at the City’s Financial Empowerment Centers will help with money
management, budgeting, financial planning, credit counseling, negotiating with
creditors, finding affordable banking services, government benefit screenings
and referrals to other services and organizations. Counseling services are also
offered in Spanish. The new Financial Empowerment Centers, administered by the
Department of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Financial Empowerment and part of the
City’s anti-poverty strategy under the Center for Economic Opportunity, are part
of the Mayor’s 18 initiatives announced last fall to provide targeted relief to
the City’s most vulnerable populations during these difficult economic
times.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 NEW YORK CITY
DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER JONATHAN MINTZ CALLS FOR OVERDRAFT
PROTECTION REFORM The Department of Consumer
Affairs (DCA) today announced it formally submitted recommendations to the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on behalf of New York City consumers
to demand the elimination of automatic enrollment into overdraft protection
programs by implementing real-time, opt-in opportunities to make overdraft
choices at point-of-sale transactions.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 MAYOR BLOOMBERG SIGNS
LEGISLATION TO EXPAND OVERSIGHT OF DEBT COLLECTION AGENCIES TO PREVENT ILLEGAL
AND UNFAIR PRACTICES Remarks by
Mayor Bloomberg at a Public Hearing on Local Laws “The fourth
bill before me is Introductory Number 660-A, sponsored by Council Members
Garodnick, Comrie, Mendez, Mark-Viverito, Barron, Brewer, Fidler, Gennaro,
Gentile, Gerson, Gonzalez, Jackson, James, Koppell, Liu, Martinez, Nelson,
Palma, White, Seabrook, Avella, Recchia, Vann, Sears, Baez, Eugene, Sanders and
Weprin. Introductory Number 660-A expands the licensing of debt collection
agencies to include buyers of delinquent debt who seek to collect such debt by,
among other things, filing law suits.
Monday, March 9, 2009 MAYOR BLOOMBERG
ANNOUNCES MORE THAN 50,000 NEW YORKERS CLAIMED CITY CHILD CARE TAX CREDITS
TOTALLING MORE THAN $30 MILLION IN THE PROGRAM’S FIRST YEAR Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that in its inaugural
year, more than 50,000 New Yorkers claimed the City’s Child Care Tax Credit, one
of the first municipal child care tax credits in the nation. The Child Care Tax
Credit which is designed to help more families afford child care and help more
parents work full-time, is just one of many successful innovations under the
Center for Economic Opportunity which oversees the City’s ambitious anti-poverty
strategy. The Mayor was joined by Center for Economic Opportunity Executive
Director Veronica White; Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz; and Food
Bank for New York City President & CEO Dr. Lucy Cabrera at the St. Mark’s
A.M.E. Church in Jackson Heights, Queens, an emergency food program which hosts
one of 12 of the City’s Tax Prep Plus sites where eligible New York City
residents can have their tax returns professionally prepared by a Tax One
professional for only $20.
Thursday, February 5, 2009 NEW YORK CITY
DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS ANNOUNCES CITYWIDE ENFORCEMENT SWEEP OF INCOME
TAX PREPARERS Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan
Mintz today announced the results of the Department’s comprehensive
investigation into advertising and sales practices of the City’s income tax
preparers. During the first four weeks of the sweep, which began last month and
will continue through tax season, Consumer Affairs inspectors examined more than
430 tax preparation businesses and issued more than 1,200 violations. Top
violations included deceptively advertising refund anticipation loans (RALs) as
“rapid” or “instant” refunds. Refund anticipation loans are high-interest,
predatory loans secured by a taxpayer’s estimated refund and are designed to
offer customers quicker access to their refund.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 MAYOR BLOOMBERG
AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER MINTZ LAUNCH THE $AVENYC ACCOUNT Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs
and Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced
the launch of the $aveNYC Account program, a special savings account to help low
income New Yorkers make the most of their tax refund by building savings through
a privately funded City matching program.
