Current Campaigns

Identity Theft Protection

In an increasingly high-tech marketplace, we trust businesses with more of our personal information than ever before. Yet many companies aren't as careful as we think—concealing security breaches or questionable sales of information that make consumers vulnerable to identity theft. Read more.

Predatory Lending

Paydaylenders, rent-to-own stores, tax refund anticipation loan (RAL) firms, auto title pawn stores and others have built an industry by kicking low-income, working-class and military families when they’re down. Some states have reined in these predatory lenders, but not all—and certainly not Congress. WashPIRG fights to regulate the industry’s misleading promises and triple-digt interest rates, and to educate consumers on how to protect themselves. Read more.

The Truth About Credit

More than half of all Americans carry credit card debt, partially because of a variety of unfair practices used by credit card companies to trap consumers in a cycle of over-priced debt. Read More.

Reining In Wall Street

For too long, the rules of Wall Street have been written by the bankers themselves.

This year, that has to change. Read more.

Challenging the Bailout

Since its inception in October of 2008, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has expanded and evolved into an alphabet soup of programs and is now known as the Financial Stability Plan.

Most people just think of these programs as "the bailout" of the banks, insurance companies and the auto industries.

WashPIRG continues to challenge Congress and the Department of Treasury to be more transparent about the bailout programs and to better protect the taxpayers who are paying for them.

Overview

Conducting the day-to-day business of our lives shouldn’t come at the cost of our financial security. For too long, the rules of Wall Street have been written by the bankers themselves. The result? Our economy collapsed. This year, that has to change.

Our economy collapsed because of a lack of strong consumer protections. Too often, the big banks, insurance and investment companies and other firms take advantage of unsuspecting consumers or manipulate the system. WashPIRG fights to make the financial marketplace work fairly, to protect vulnerable Americans from predatory lending terms, to equip consumers with the knowledge to protect their finances, and to expose business practices that make us vulnerable to identity theft, fraud and abusive credit rates.

We also need broad reforms to guarantee that regulators do their safety and soundness job, that systemic risk is reduced and all the players are covered.

Now that we know that a few investment firms can undermine the larger economy, we must take steps to protect taxpayers and consumers.

We need to rein in the excesses of Wall Street. No more hidden accounting practices or demanding that we invest our retirement savings blindly.  We need to protect consumers and our economic future with new rules to put a check on irresponsible banking practices and we need to make sure those rules are enforced. We need independent enforcement. No more cozy relationships between regulators and the regulated.

We also need to fix the bailout and we need to guarantee that it won’t happen again. We need a financial system that protects taxpayers, homeowners and tenants, depositors and small investors.