Washington, D.C.- Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. Following that announcement, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the statement below:
"Predatory lenders have tricked seniors and other vulnerable citizens into taking out high-interest loans for green-energy appliances using their homes as collateral. In some cases, these loans have squeezed Americans to the point of foreclosure, robbing them of the very homes they sought to improve. Soon this predatory lending scam will come to an end thanks to my Protecting Americans from Credit Exploitation provision, which passed last year. Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took steps to implement this provision to protect consumers from predatory green-energy loans. I look forward to working with the administration to ensure all homeowners are protected from these predatory lending practices."
Background:
PACE loans are a financing program that provides homeowners with solar panels or other housing improvements in exchange for a lien on the home and increased property tax payments for up to 20 years. There are no federal underwriting or disclosure requirements, the loans have high fees, and they are far more expensive than mortgages or home equity loans.
