Velázquez Sends a Letter to Financial Regulators Regarding the Financial Exploitation of Survivors of Domestic Violence

Washington D.C.— Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) has sent a letter to the heads of federal regulatory agencies charged with overseeing the nation's financial institutions and consumer protection laws. Velázquez wrote to the heads of the CFPB, Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA, and the OCC, expressing concerns over the economic exploitation of survivors of domestic violence. The letter requests information from these agencies on how they will ensure that the financial well-being of domestic violence survivors is protected. Survivors of domestic violence collectively lose a total eight million days of paid work each year and face economic losses exceeding $8.3 billion per year. In addition to financial loss, ninety-nine percent of domestic violence survivors face economic abuse which occurs when a harm-doer controls a survivor's finances through coercion, deception, fraud, and manipulation.

"October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and unfortunately, domestic violence remains extremely prevalent in the United States," wrote Rep. Velázquez. "Fifty-eight percent of survivors—more than nineteen million individuals in the United States—report that a harm-doer has monitored, accessed, withdrawn from, or otherwise controlled their account. Without access to a safe and protected account, building the financial security necessary to reach long-term safety is a difficult and dangerous process. The evidence is clear: financial institutions need to be doing more to reduce the economic abuse of survivors and ensure survivors' financial livelihoods are protected."

In the letter Rep. Velázquez requested the answers to the following questions from each of the agencies:

1. How does your agency or department work with federally regulated financial institutions to identify economic abuse of domestic violence survivors that is carried out through federally regulated financial institutions?

2. What is your agency's or department's process for enabling federally-regulated financial institutions to report economic abuse of domestic violence survivors to your agency or department?

2a) If your agency or department does not have a reporting process for enabling federally regulated financial institutions to report economic abuse of domestic violence survivors to your agency or department, please explain why no such reporting process is in place.

3. How does your agency or department compile data from federally regulated financial institutions to monitor statistics and trends of economic abuse that is carried out through federally regulated financial institutions?

3a) If your agency or department does not compile data from federally regulated financial institutions in order to monitor statistics and trends of economic abuse that is carried out through federally regulated financial institutions, please explain why your agency or department does not compile this data.

4. How does your agency or department work with federally regulated financial institutions to ensure their customer facing employees are properly trained to identify economic abuse and work with domestic violence survivors to ensure their financial assets are properly protected from their harm-doer?

"Survivors of domestic violence are financially devastated by the harm they are subjected to, and yet aren't currently provided with the tailored consumer protections and support they need to recover. Making matters worse, 58% of survivors report that a person causing them harm has accessed, monitored, withdrawn from, or otherwise controlled their bank account. Without safe access to their own bank accounts, saving the money needed for long-term safety is difficult and dangerous for survivors. We applaud Rep. Velázquez for taking action to create better consumer protections for survivors – including at their banks – which have the potential to help millions of survivors and their families across the U.S. save the money necessary to get and stay safe," said Sonya Passi, Founder and CEO of FreeFrom.

To read the full letter click here.