The Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union is suing President Donald Trump for his handling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan, the local organization took aim at Trump’s decision to install his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, as the bureau’s director. The former acting director, Leandra English, has also filed suit, but a federal court judge in Washington ruled that Mulvaney can take over while the case works its way through the courts.
The lawsuit from the Lower East Side credit union argues that the president’s decision threw the industry “into a state of regulatory chaos” and that his move amounts to “an illegal hostile takeover.” Attorneys from the credit union said Mulvaney’s, “mission is to destroy a bureau that protects thousands of the credit union’s members.” They added, “The Credit Union’s members need the CFPB to protect them against unscrupulous payday lenders, mortgage sellers, and others regulated by the CFPB.”
“We support the CFPB as a protector of our low-income members’ financial rights, and fear that the appointment of an acting director beholden to the White House could result in upheaval and ultimate dissolution of this critical agency,” Linda Levy, CEO of the credit union said in a statement. “Having experienced the devastation that the 2008 mortgage crisis wreaked on our low income members, we need the CFPB to protect communities targeted by financial predators.”
The Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union was founded in 1986 and has about 8500 members. It has offices at 37 Avenue B on the Lower East Side, as well as locations in East Harlem and on Staten Island.
