The Honorable Jeff Merkley United States Senate Washington, DC 20510

We, the undersigned consumer and community organizations, write to support your legislation to protect consumers from high-risk lending on the internet and offline. The Stopping Abuse and Fraud in Electronic (SAFE) Lending Act of 2012 is important legislation that will safeguard consumers and law-abiding lenders from abuses rampant today in consumer lending.

The SAFE Lending Act safeguards consumers by:

• Requiring all on-line small-dollar lenders (such as payday lenders) to comply with state law if it provides better consumer protections than federal law.

• Preventing national banks and federal savings and loans from making payday loans in violation of the state law where the consumer resides.

• Providing new federal enforcement measures to protect consumers from online payday lenders that seek to evade state consumer protection laws, such as by locating their businesses off-shore, or affiliating with a Native American Tribe and claiming the right to assert the tribe’s sovereign immunity.

• Empowering Tribes to enlist the help of the CFPB where needed to protect their members from abusive payday lending on the reservation, and respecting tribal laws that provide stronger consumer protections than are available under state law.

• Closing the single payment loophole in the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and extending consumer control over electronic payment of credit to all loans.

• Safeguarding consumer data by banning “lead generators” who traffic in payday loan application information via marketing websites, and prohibiting them from anonymously collecting sensitive consumer data.

• Stopping lenders from using borrowers’ bank account details to create unsigned checks used to withdraw funds, even when consumers have exercised their federal rights against compulsory electronic payment of credit under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.

Sincerely,

Americans for Financial Reform NAACP Consumer Federation of America Center for Responsible Lending Consumer Action Consumers Union National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low-income clients National Association of Consumer Advocates National Council of La Raza Public Citizen National People’s Action National Community Reinvestment Coalition DEMOS The Greenlining Institute National Fair Housing Alliance Center for Digital Democracy USPIRG

State Organizations Arizona PIRG Southwest Center for Economic Integrity, Tucson, AZ Democratic Processes Center, Tucson, AZ Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending Arkansas Community Organizations California Reinvestment Coalition Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, CA The Bell Policy Center, CO Florida Consumer Action Network Jacksonville Area Legal Services, FL Florida Consumer Action Network Chicago Consumer Coalition, IL Kentucky Coalition for Responsible Lending Kentucky Equal Justice Center Raise KY Jesuit Social Research Institute, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA Consumer Assistance Council, Inc., MA Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition Legal Services Advocacy project, St. Paul, MN Reinvestment Partners, NC New Mexico Voices for Children Empire Justice Center, NY Policy Matters Ohio NEDAP, NY Coalition on Homelessness & Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) Economic Fairness Oregon Oregon Consumer League OSPIRG, OR Richard Fisher, Attorney, Cleveland, TN Legal Aid Society of Texas Coalition of Religious Communities, UT Virginia Citizens Consumer Council Virginia Poverty Law Center Mountain State Justice, WV