Prepared Remarks of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra at the Public Meeting of the Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing

The United States has set a clear goal: increase the manufacturing, installation, and adoption of solar panels and other clean energy equipment to power our economy. After the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, we are also seeing solar manufacturing ramp up domestically, and the U.S. is finally competing against China and other countries.

One way that the U.S. will sustain this momentum is if we develop a fair and competitive market for residential solar. Because of tax credits and other incentives, we are seeing families across the country install rooftop solar or participate in community solar programs. The Department of the Treasury and other government agencies have been working hard to make sure that people of all economic backgrounds can take advantage of these incentives so that the savings from solar energy don't just go to a small slice of American families.

But there's something that could undermine this boom in manufacturing and could jeopardize the potential savings for a family who installs solar: predatory lending.

While wealthy families can front the money for a solar panel installation, many families will need to finance it.

We've been fortunate to see a range of lenders step up to help finance residential solar, including community development financial institutions, who are helping families find options that will get them ahead financially.

However, in a report that the CFPB will publish today, we have identified a number of predatory practices, including high-pressure door-to-door sales where families are baited into expensive loans that wipe away the savings from a solar installation.

For example, we've found that some companies manipulate key terms to make a costly loan seem less expensive. We've also found instances where companies make exaggerated claims about how much a family will save and then shock them with ballooning payments.

I'm really worried about this. Predatory lending or other race-to-the-bottom business practices can undermine the growth and development of residential solar programs and our country's international competitiveness. Honest businesses and lenders shouldn't have to compete with predatory practices.

We've seen this before. After the subprime mortgage crisis, we saw how it made many families believe that the dream of homeownership might actually turn into a nightmare. We can't let predatory lending undermine confidence in the solar lending market.

That's why we know that protecting consumers and promoting competition are a key pillar for broad residential solar adoption in our country.

The CFPB has put forth new rules to rein in Property Assessed Clean Energy financing, or PACE loans. We're also closely scrutinizing the lending practices of solar lenders to make sure they aren't undermining these key goals.

Federal banking regulators have also updated rules under the Community Reinvestment Act to provide further incentives for banks to help low- and moderate-income neighborhoods access fair and affordable credit to finance solar.

In addition to our report, we've also published a nationwide consumer advisory to help people navigate solar financing. And we're going to continue to make sure that firms don't deploy greenwashing tactics to exploit consumers and pad their profits.

Thanks to all of you from the law enforcement community, the business community, and the advocacy community for being here. Our work together will help make sure that predatory lending doesn't undermine the progress our country is making.

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