Mayor’s Office Launches Consumer Financial Protection Effort; DA’s Office a Partner

Mayor Hancock, Partners Launch New Denver Consumer Financial Protection Initiative

DENVER – Mayor Michael B. Hancock and partner organizations today launched a new Consumer Financial Protection Initiative to strengthen consumer rights and protect residents from predatory financial practices.

“Through this new Consumer Financial Protection Initiative, we are ramping up our efforts to help Denver residents know their rights, understand their choices as consumers and achieve greater economic mobility for themselves and their families,” Mayor Hancock said. “This new initiative is a big step toward the comprehensive system we need to provide relief for our residents, and we’re grateful to all the partners who are helping to make it happen.”

While federal actions have threatened to weaken important consumer protections, Denver will begin to explore local actions that the city and partners can take to protect residents from predatory practices that hurt our families. The new initiative, which will work in collaboration with area non-profits and ongoing efforts at the city, state and federal levels, will focus on ways the city can combat elder abuse, notario fraud, wage theft, predatory lending and predatory housing practices.

Denver is among four cities planning a consumer financial protection entity in partnership with the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The CFE Fund provided $125,000 to fund the city’s development of a design and implementation plan that began in late 2017 and will continue through 2018. The city also received a $10,000 investment in this effort from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

Denver has thus far completed a preliminary needs and resource assessment, as well as identified major stakeholder groups in nonprofit and government entities. In 2018, this new initiative will focus on the implementation of a central hub for consumer financial complaints that will connect consumers to the various agencies that can resolve complaints or provide consumers with other resources as well as collect data to inform efforts moving forward around:

• Prevention, education and outreach;
• Policy review and development;
• Complaint resolution;
• Monitoring;
• Enforcement; and
• Supportive services.

MEDIA ADVISORY

Mayor Hancock and partners will discuss the Consumer Financial Protection Initiative and the current state of Consumer Financial Protection TODAY during the following event:

What:                   Presentation and Panel Discussion; A Predatory Economy: Denver’s Call to Action

Who:                     Mayor Hancock

Jonathan Mintz, President & CEO, Cities for Financial Empowerment – KEYNOTE

Beth McCann, Denver District Attorney

Alissa Gardenswartz, Colorado Deputy Attorney General

Scott Wasserman, President, Bell Policy Center

Karen Cody-Hopkins, Colorado attorney focused on student loan law and consumer bankruptcy

Where:                                Denver Post Auditorium, 101 W Colfax Ave., Denver, CO  80202

When:                  TODAY, Thursday, March 15, 2018, 3:00-5:00 p.m.

The city wishes to express its gratitude to the partners below who informed the 2017 needs assessment and design work and have been invited to advise the city in the 2018 implementation planning work:

• Government: City and County of Denver, Denver District Attorney, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Colorado Attorney General, Denver Auditor.
• Nonprofits: mpowered, Denver Metro Fair Housing, Brothers Redevelopment, NEWSED, Servicios de La Raza, Towards Justice, Bell Policy Center, AARP, DRCOG, Operation Hope, Centro Humanitario, ACLU
• Businesses: Better Business Bureau
• Funders: CFE Fund, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, CO Bank and Gary Community Investments

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