PRESS - The Ireland Post wrote an article on ECRC last June. During a Web search one of our members found this short published article from a June edition of Ireland Post which despite reporting on and supporting the ECRC also includes a couple inaccuracies which need pointing out. Firstly is the error made in the article's title, as it was the ECRC and other similar consumer representative entities that were excluded from the conference and not the “banks”. Secondly, though the article correctly evokes the support ECRC has from the Irish Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) as well as the English DOOD, it mistakenly states that ECRC is somehow based on the Centre for Responsible Lending in the United States. Although the CRL is a member of the American homologue NCRC organisation, there has been until now no contacts established between CRL and ECRC, and there has been no participation by them at any of our ECRC conferences. It would appear that we share a common goal of seeing better and less abusive lending practices generally, and as such we are eager to learn about this institution and its research on responsible credit as it is defined in our principles. (PS: All articles on ECRC in the Press will be made available shortly on a seperate part of the website) ---------------------------------------- Article from the Irish Sunday Post: BANKS EXCLUDED FROM HIGH-LEVEL EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CONFERENCE Sunday, June 11, 2006 - By Kathleen Barrington The ECRC told Barroso it was unhappy about its exclusion from the conference at a time when financial services and access to credit were of critical importance to European consumers. The conference was organised by EuroFi, a financial services lobby group, which includes many of the big names in European financial services including Axa, Aviva, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale and Unicredit Group. In the letter, Damon Gibbon, chair of Debt on our Doorstep in Britain, told Barroso he was concerned about problems of financial exclusion on the one hand and severe levels of over-indebtedness on the other. The ECRC was formed following a conference in April this year attended by 150 consumer representatives and non-governmental agencies including Ireland’s Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs). The ECRC is loosely based on the Centre for Responsible Lending in the United States which has proved a thorn in the side of lenders, especially sub-prime lenders who charge a premium for loans to low income households. Mabs chief executive Michael Culloty said he shared the concerns expressed by the ECRC in its letter to Barroso. The ECRC claims the commission’s consultation processes with regard to financial services and consumer protection provision in the EU are inadequate. It has called on Barroso to ‘‘revise the way in which consumer representatives are selected in order to ensure that all stakeholders are involved in the commission’s consultation processes’’. ID: 38824 Author(s): iff Publication date: 01/11/06     URL(s): Link to US Centre for Responsible Lending

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