Protests in Boston, Chicago, Durham, North Carolina and New York City called for the return of usury laws and to cap loan and credit card interest rates at 10 percent.
In Boston, a group of clergy member from a number of religious groups descended on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston along with the Bank of America headquarters in the city to protest the high interest rates consumers pay for loans, according to the Boston Globe.
At the protest, Bilal Kaleem, executive director of the legal chapter of the Muslim American Society, said banks are taking advantage of the recession to overcharge consumers.
“With the economy turning down, financial institutions have been really exploiting the occasion, raising interest rates, effectively reducing people to debt slavery,” he told the Globe.
In addition to the protests around the U.S. and London, groups also sent letters to the CEOs of some of the nation’s largest lenders – including Wells Fargo, Citibank and Discover – requesting meetings with the groups.
The Washington Post notes that the group organizing the protests was the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation (Metro IAF), a group that calls for Congress to pass usury laws that would cap interest rates at 10 percent.
In a white paper, the Metro IAF says that a 10 percent cap would allow banks to remain profitable while allowing consumers to access money at more reasonable rates.
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness do not depend on the nation continuing to condone legalized loan sharking,” says the group. “In fact, they may depend on the ability of political leaders to end it.”
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