The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau held negotiations with a prominent payday loan executive before the US agency rolled back stiff regulations of the controversial industry that had been slated to take effect this year, the New York Post reported. Hilary Miller, president of the Short-Term Loan Bar Association, a trade group for lawyers representing payday lenders, confirmed that he represented individual lenders in discussions with the CFPB last year, in the months before the agency scrapped onerous rules proposed in 2017 that had been slated to go into effect this summer. The comment by Miller confirmed to The Post directly contradicts a statement made to the Washington Post earlier this week by Marisol Garibay, the CFPB’s acting chief communications officer. “The bureau did not discuss its proposal to rescind the rule with industry officials before making the announcement,” Garibay said, the newspaper reported on Monday. The CFPB, which regulates the lenders, has been under scrutiny from consumer advocates over perceived conflicts of interest with the payday loan industry.
