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Visit coincides with start of National Consumer Protection Week

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Kicking off National Consumer Protection Week from March 6 to March 12, 2011, Operation HOPE (HOPE) hosted Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Elizabeth Warren at the Anacostia HOPE Center today.

“Elizabeth Warren was an influential voice in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau focused on shielding Americans from dishonest business practices and to promote healthy financial habits”

“Elizabeth Warren was an influential voice in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau focused on shielding Americans from dishonest business practices and to promote healthy financial habits,” said HOPE Executive Vice President and Chief of Field Operations Lance Triggs. “The fact that she came here today to listen to local residents and HOPE clients underscores her commitment in making a real difference in the lives of everyday Americans with a real focus on the underserved."

The day’s event culminated in a roundtable discussion where, after making opening remarks, Warren wanted to hear from the 30 consumers and community leaders that were present. Several of the attendees relayed personal stories to Warren, talking about their experiences around pay day lending, consumer loan fraud and consumer credit fraud as well as predatory subprime lending.

Operation HOPE partners on hand to support the day’s events were E*TRADE Bank’s Director of Community Investment Kelvin James and SunTrust’s Vice President and Regional Community Development Manager Muriel Garr.

Operation HOPE has actively instructed consumers in financial literacy and economic education since 1992. Through their programs they have served over 1.4 million low-wealth and underserved individuals, created new homeowners, small business owners and entrepreneurs, helped clients manage and improve their credit scores by an average of 130 points, and encouraged eligible low-wealth working residents to collect Earned Income Tax Credits.

Since the mortgage crisis started to unfold in America in 2008, the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline team has received over 114,000 calls for assistance from all 50 states, provided guidance and assistance to thousands of individuals, provided foreclosure prevention education and counseling to over 20,000 homeowners in crisis and delayed or modified over $400 million in mortgage loans which has resulted in preventing over 1,358 homeowners from losing their home to foreclosure.

To support Professor Warren in her position in the Obama Administration, HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant, who also serves the Obama Administration on the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, has appointed HOPE’s Director of HOPE Coalition America Jason Yancey to the newly created post of Director of Consumer Financial Protection. Yancey, who has extensive experience working in the banking and financial services industry, will continue to serve as the Director of HOPE Coalition America, the portfolio responsible for the hotlines as well as for providing economic triage to disaster victims.

President Barack Obama appointed the Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren to the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in September 2010, where the new body will provide wide regulatory power over mortgages, credit cards and other financial services.

In 2010, the HOPE Consumer Credit Crisis Hotline was launched and provides free services to assist individuals that need answers and guidance on how to resolve credit issues. Free services of the hotline include how to negotiate with creditors; options to lowering debt; how to establish a repayment plan; and how to defer payments.

Both the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline and the HOPE Consumer Credit Crisis Hotline are free to consumers and can be accessed by calling 888-388-HOPE (4673).

About Operation HOPE

Founded in 1992, social empowerment nonprofit Operation HOPE’s mission is to expand economic opportunity in under-resourced communities through financial literacy education. HOPE promotes "silver rights" – making free enterprise and capitalism relevant and effective for the underserved. Raising more than $500 million and directing and restructuring nearly $500 million more in mortgages and economic support from the private sector, for a total of approximately $1 billion dollars in economic activity, HOPE seeks dignity and empowerment for all. Follow Operation HOPE at www.operationhope.orgwww.twitter.com/operationhope, and www.facebook.com/operationhope.

 

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