Monday, November 29, 2010 NEW YORK CITY
AWARDED NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES’ 2010 GOLD AWARD FOR MUNICIPAL
EXCELLENCE The National League of Cities (NLC)
announced today that New York City has won a 2010 Gold Award for Municipal
Excellence. The Award, in the category of cities with a population of more than
500,000, went to the Department of Consumer Affairs’ (DCA) Financial Empowerment
Centers as an outstanding program that improves the quality of life in America’s
communities. DCA’s network of more than 20 Financial Empowerment Centers provide
free, one-on-one, multilingual professional financial counseling to New York
City residents.
Friday, September 3, 2010 NEW YORK CITY'S
FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT CENTERS PROGRAM NAMED FINALIST FOR NATIONAL LEAGUE OF
CITIES' 2010 AWARDS FOR MUNICIPAL EXCELLENCE The
National League of Cities announced that New York City is a finalist for the
2010 Awards for Municipal Excellence. The Awards for Municipal Excellence
recognize cities and towns for outstanding programs that improve the quality of
life in America's communities. New York City was chosen for the Department of
Consumer Affairs' Financial Empowerment Centers, which provide free one-on-one
professional financial counseling to New York City residents.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 DEPARTMENT OF
CONSUMER AFFAIRS PROVIDES NEW YORKERS WITH PRACTICAL TIPS FOR SMART
BACK-TO-SCHOOL SHOPPING Parents Can Learn Additional Ways to Protect
Their Money With Free, One-on-One Professional Financial Counseling at the
City’s Network of Financial Empowerment Centers With the new school year
rapidly approaching, Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan
Mintz has issued “protect your money” pointers for families shopping for their
kids’ back-to-school needs.
Thursday, July 29, 2010 DEPARTMENT OF
CONSUMER AFFAIRS AND DEPARTMENT OF YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ANNOUNCE NYC
FIRST ACCOUNT, A SAFE BANK ACCOUNT FOR YOUNG NEW YORKERS, TO HELP BREAK THE
UNBANKED CYCLE Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA)
Commissioner Jonathan Mintz and Department of Youth and Community Development
(DYCD) Commissioner Jeanne B. Mullgrav today announced the NYC First Account, a
safe bank account designed to encourage young New Yorkers to open a bank account
as they enter the workforce for the first time. The account is available to all
DYCD Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) participants between the ages of 18
and 24. The NYC First Account is the next step in DCA's efforts to develop safe
banking products and encourage New Yorkers to become banked.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 CONSUMER AFFAIRS
COMMISSIONER JONATHAN MINTZ ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF THE CITY’S FINANCIAL
EMPOWERMENT CENTERS SERVICES TO INCLUDE COUNSELING IN CHINESE, HOMEOWNERSHIP AND
FORECLOSURE PREVENTION COUNSELING AND COUNSELING FOR HOMEBOUND NEW
YORKERS Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan Mintz
today announced three new Financial Empowerment Centers which will offer free,
one-on-one professional financial counseling to New York City residents. The new
Financial Empowerment Centers, which are administered by DCA’s Office of
Financial Empowerment (OFE) in partnership with Credit Where Credit Is Due
(CWCID), Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) and Neighborhood Housing Services
of New York City (NHS), offer specialized counseling to homeowners in need and,
at AAFE, expand financial counseling services to Mandarin and Cantonese speaking
New Yorkers. The new centers are made possible through a partnership with
NeighborWorks America. The City’s network of Financial Empowerment Centers help
clients with money management, budgeting, credit counseling, negotiating with
creditors, finding affordable banking services, debt management, government
benefit screenings and referrals to other services and organizations.
Monday, May 17, 2010 MAYOR BLOOMBERG
and CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER MINTZ ANNOUNCE NEW DEBT COLLECTION REGULATIONS
TO PROTECT NEW YORKERS FROM BEING HARASSED FOR DEBTS THEY DO NOT
OWE Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Department of Consumer Affairs
Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced new debt collection regulations
designed to prevent New Yorkers from being harassed about debts they don’t owe –
a problem that has grown since the onset of the national recession in late 2007.
Collectors, armed with a list of debtors, routinely attempt to collect from
anyone in the five boroughs with the same name as a person on the list,
regardless of whether the debt belongs to that person. Under the new
regulations, any debt collection agency attempting to collect a debt from a New
Yorker must provide proof the debt is owed at the consumer’s
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Friday, May 14, 2010 CONSUMER AFFAIRS
COMMISSIONER JONATHAN MINTZ ADDRESSES NEW YORK STATE CHECK-CASHING INDUSTRY BY
CALLING FOR IT TO EXPLORE WEALTH BUILDING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES The
following is the text of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz’s remarks
as prepared for delivery at the Financial Service Centers of New York 18th
Annual Conference & Exposition “Thank you for inviting me to join
you today. I’m here today to talk about the Bloomberg Administration’s approach
to meeting the financial services needs of consumers with low incomes – a market
that you all have long recognized for its potential, and that the many banks
have long ignored. There are over 825,000 adults in New York City who live in
households where no one has a checking or savings account – and hundreds of
thousands of others have banks accounts but primarily rely on check cashers like
yourselves and other non-banks to conduct their core financial transactions.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 STATEMENT OF
CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER JONATHAN MINTZ ON JPMORGAN CHASE’S DECISION TO
QUIT REFUND ANTICIPATION LOAN BUSINESS “JPMorgan Chase’s decision to pull out of the refund anticipation
loan (“RAL”) business, along with a growing list of others in the financial
services industry, will ideally herald the ultimate and long-overdue demise of
these predatory and unnecessary loans,” said Consumer Affairs Commissioner
Jonathan Mintz. “In New York, our enforcement agents find year after year that
tax preparers generally need to lie about these terrible loans to sell them,
misrepresenting them as “rapid refunds” rather than costly loans that drain
much-needed dollars from those who can least afford it. And because these
high-priced RALs go to low-income wage-earners, it siphons taxpayer dollars away
from the Earned Income Tax Credit, which Congress specifically intended to help
working individuals with low and moderate incomes. It’s time to ban these loans
once and for all so taxpayers get every penny of the tax refunds our elected
officials intended them to receive.”
Thursday, April 1, 2010 MAYOR BLOOMBERG
AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER MINTZ ANNOUNCE NEW YORKERS CAN FILE TAXES FOR
FREE BEFORE THE APRIL 15TH DEADLINE ONLINE OR IN PERSON AT THE CITY’S FREE TAX
SITES Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and
Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz announced today that,
with two weeks left before the April 15 deadline to file taxes, more than 2,100
New Yorkers have already used the City's first ever free online tax preparation
site to file their 2009 tax returns. Using the free tool, New Yorkers can claim
refunds like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Child Care Tax Credit
(CCTC). Of the 2,100 users, over 900 have filed directly through the City's
website www.nyc.gov and 1,200 have
used the City's drop-in locations, which provide free assistance from certified
tax specialists. New Yorkers who earn $58,000 or less annually - about 2.7
million people - qualify to electronically file their federal and state tax
returns for free on the City's new online tax preparation service. In 2008, New
Yorkers claimed approximately $2.3 billion in total EITC tax credits. During the
2009 tax season, the City's 311 phone system fielded more than 35,000
EITC-related inquiries.
Monday, March 29, 2010 MAYOR BLOOMBERG
ANNOUNCES NEW NYC SERVICE INITIATIVE TO PROVIDE FREE LEGAL SERVICES TO
HOMEOWNERS IN DANGER OF FORECLOSURE Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Chief Service Officer Diahann
Billings-Burford, Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo and Commissioner of
Department of Consumer Affairs Jonathan Mintz today launched a new NYC Service
initiative to provide free legal support for New Yorkers at risk of losing their
homes to foreclosure. The program will increase the availability and
effectiveness of free legal representation for those facing foreclosure by
training and dispatching 300 volunteer attorneys to expand legal services
provided by non-profit organizations. The free legal services program is a
component of Mayor Bloomberg’s 2010 State of City pledge to launch the most
ambitious home foreclosure prevention effort of any city in the nation. The
program will be implemented by NYC Service, the City’s comprehensive initiative
to promote a new era of service in New York City and direct volunteers toward
the areas of greatest need. The Mayor also was joined at the announcement at the
Queens County Supreme Court by Justice Fern A. Fisher, Deputy Chief
Administrative Judge for New York City Courts, who is responsible for access to
justice issues; Michael Hickey, Executive Director for the Center for New York
City Neighborhoods; and Hilary Gingold, an attorney who will be participating in
the program and has extensive experience working on a pro bono basis on
foreclosure proceedings.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 DEPARTMENT OF
CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER MINTZ WARNS BANKS AGAINST USING TEXT MESSAGING TO
ENROLL CUSTOMERS INTO OVERDRAFT PROTECTION SERVICES Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan Mintz
today warned firms not to undermine new federal regulations with aggressive
solicitations to enroll New Yorkers into overdraft protection services. This
message comes after the Department learned the marketing firm SoundBite
Communications has promoted its “text message solution” to financial
institutions that will need to obtain consent from their customers beginning
July 1 before enrolling them into overdraft services. In a letter to the firm,
Commissioner Mintz cautioned against aggressive marketing strategies that defy
new federal regulations of overdraft protection and threaten the financial
security of consumers. In a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,
Commissioner Mintz also asked that the Federal Reserve to prohibit financial
institutions from using text messages to obtain consent from their customers
before enrolling them into overdraft services, a tactic that would eliminate the
consumer’s opportunity to make informed choices about overdraft protection
services.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 DEPARTMENT OF
CONSUMER AFFAIRS DECLARES DECEPTIVE OVERDRAFT ENROLLMENT TOP FRAUD OF THE
YEAR Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA)
Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today declared deceptive enrollment in so-called
“courtesy overdraft” protection a top fraud of the year. Banks who continue to
automatically enroll customers into such costly services without their
permission after July 1, 2010 will be violating federal law. Fees for these
services, which average $27 per $20 purchase, cost Americans more than $38
billion in fees in 2009 alone and were assessed without most customers’
knowledge or permission. DCA cautions consumers about the deceptive marketing
tactics that banks may use in upcoming months to re-enroll them in these
nontransparent practices and calls upon banks to offer real-time overdraft
choices instead. In an effort to provide New Yorkers with a safe banking option
and no overdraft fees, particularly the 825,000 without mainstream bank
accounts, DCA has also created NYC SafeStart Bank Account, the City’s first
banking product available to all New Yorkers.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 NEW YORK CITY
DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS ISSUES MORE THAN 2,000 VIOLATIONS IN CITYWIDE
CRACKDOWN OF INCOME TAX PREPARERS Department
of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced that
during a month-long investigation of income tax preparers throughout the City,
DCA inspected nearly 800 tax preparation businesses and issued 2,010 charges for
violations including illegally advertising refund anticipation loans (RALs) as
“instant” or “rapid” refunds. Total fines from the enforcement sweep could reach
more than $1 million.
Thursday, February 25,
2010 MORE
THAN 825,000 ADULTS IN NEW YORK CITY DO NOT HAVE BANK OR CREDIT UNION ACCOUNTS
ACCORDING TO NEW CITYWIDE STUDY Department of
Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan Mintz today announced that more
than 825,000 adult New Yorkers do not have bank accounts, but instead use fringe
financial services like check cashers to pay bills, cash payroll checks, buy
money orders and conduct other financial transactions. To help New Yorkers
transition from using high-cost fringe financial services, DCA has created NYC
SafeStart Bank Account, the City’s first banking product available to all New
Yorkers.
Thursday, January 21, 2010 DEPARTMENT OF
CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER JONATHAN MINTZ KICKS OFF TAX SEASON BY ANNOUNCING
THE CITY’S FIRST EVER FREE ‘TAX REFUND SUPER SATURDAY’ EVENT Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jonathan Mintz
today announced the City’s first ever free ‘Tax Refund Super Saturday’ event.
‘Tax Refund Super Saturday’ will be held at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth
Avenue, between 34th and 35th Streets) on Saturday, January 23 from 11 a.m. to
3:30 p.m., kicking off the City’s 8th Annual Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
Coalition Campaign. The Saturday event will offer free tax preparation for New
Yorkers who have dependent children and earn less than $50,000, and City
residents who have no children and earn less than $18,000. Tax preparers will
check if City residents qualify for the EITC, the NYC Child Care Tax Credit and
other tax credits that could put money back in their pockets. The average EITC
refund alone is $2,700. Tax preparation will be provided by Beehive, Food Bank
for New York City, Ariva and the National Association of Black Accountants. The
event will also include free one-on-one financial fitness check-ups in English
and Spanish, free group workshops on credit, homeownership and other important
financial topics, provided by the Financial Planner’s Association, Phipps
Community Development Corporation, Credit Where Credit is Due, The Financial
Clinic and Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.
