Increased college counseling, better consumer disclosures and school certification of all private education loans are concepts that financial aid administrators wholeheartedly embrace, along with stronger authority to prohibit overborrowing.
Romney's position on consumer disclosures is nuanced.
Price did help shepherd through a bill to improve consumer disclosures on home equity loans in 1986, but by the 1990s, he had joined a bipartisan congressional consensus to deregulate much of the financial industry.
While regulators and consumers see disclosure as a way to improve transparency, companies often regard it as a risk-management strategy.
Still, Susan Weinstock, director of the safe checking project, said the banks should be commended for adopting more consumer friendly disclosures that allow customers to see the fees associated with their account in clear terms.
In some instances telemarketers read consumers a "disclosure" but intentionally butchered the wording, leaving out important words, running sentences together or speed-reading the text, "all to make it incomprehensible to the consumer," the attorney general's office said in a statement.
This month, two Democratic senators, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Jack Reed of Rhode Island, urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to adopt a more consumer-friendly disclosure form, akin to the nutrition label on food packaging, for all the fees attached to a checking account.
But to many consumer advocates, full disclosure should be the only option, especially when it comes to companies that deal with personal finances.
To demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the highest sales standards, the American Council of Life Insurers, whose members issue most annuities, is stepping up efforts for enhanced consumer education and disclosure for all purchasers of annuities, as well as protections specifically designed for seniors.
