Sleazy Bankers, You’ve Met Your Match

April Charney is an attorney with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. She specializes in defending homeowners against foreclosure proceedings. She has a detailed knowledge of the law as it pertains to contracts, mortgages, debt collections; and she uses this knowledge as a lethal weapon against the slippery banking industry.

This is how she describes the loan officers, appraisers and investment bankers she does battle with: “You ever look into a place where snakes hang out? That’s what I see here. They’re writhing and oozing and morphing into creepy stuff with slime all over it.”

And then she adds: “Not to discredit snakes or anything.”

She’s personally handling almost a hundred foreclosure cases; and on top of that she’s taught about 1,500 other lawyers how to do what she’s doing.

The president of Loan Safe Solutions said: “She is definitely a woman who walks the talk and carries a big stick that will crush those who defy consumer laws.”

And in other news: the party’s over for thousands of loan sharks in the U.S. A division of the Treasury Department — the Office of Thrift Supervision — will be cracking down on some of the sleaziest practices of the credit card industry.

It’s too bad an unelected government agency had to make these changes, but we sure as hell weren’t getting any help from our prostitutes in Congress. They’ve had eight sensuous years of getting fisted by the banking industry; but the S&M-fest is almost over.

Beginning in July of 2010, credit card firms will not be allowed to raise the interest rate on your current balance. And they’ll have to give you at least 45 days notice before making any changes in your account. Currently only 15 days notice is required.

John Reich, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, said these new rules “will enhance public confidence in financial institutions and establish a level playing field for institutions that want to do business fairly without suffering competitive disadvantages.”

The banking industry is expected to lose $10 billion a year from not being able to continue their slippery extortion tactics. Uh oh, these assholes might have to start working for a living.

cross-posted at Bring It On!