An abused wife opens a credit card statement and discovers her abuser ran up $40,000 in her name. A soldier overseas finds out a predatory lender jacked his car-loan rate while he was deployed. A family buried under medical debt tries to negotiate a settlement with the help of a debt relief company. And a Washington lobby group spends millions making sure they can’t.
Meet the American Financial Services Association. AFSA says it’s fighting for consumers. Don’t buy it. AFSA is a creditor trade group that has gone to war against domestic violence survivors, military families, and working Americans drowning in debt.
Yet just weeks ago, AFSA President and CEO Celia Winslow appeared before Congress to attack the debt relief industry, portraying it as a threat to consumers while presenting a one-sided picture of the facts. Before lawmakers accept AFSA as a credible voice for consumers, they should take a closer look at the organization’s own record.
The problem isn’t that AFSA represents creditors. That’s its job. The problem is that it presents itself as a champion for consumers while repeatedly opposing policies designed to protect them.
The record speaks for itself. AFSA lobbiesagainst legislation protecting domestic violence survivors. In 2026, AFSA sent letters to legislators in Maryland, Vermont, and Pennsylvania pushing to gut protections for domestic violence survivors—bills designed to help victims whose partners opened credit in their names or coerced them into debt. That happens to more than half of survivors. AFSA wanted to carve out certain debts and stack barriers before a victim could qualify.
When consumers are most vulnerable, AFSA’s instinct is too often to defend the financial institution rather than the individual.
AFSA went after the troops, too. The group pushed to weaken safeguards on high-cost loans marketed to military borrowers —servicemembers putting their lives on the line while lenders drain their bank accounts back home. Military financial experts said it flat out: groups like AFSA make genuine-sounding promises about helping the military, but they are part of the problem.
The hypocrisy gets worse. AFSA fights to keep struggling families locked into their debts, but it had no trouble feeding at the trough during COVID. The group listed PPP loan forgiveness as a federal lobbying priority and sued the government for a $463,000 Employee Retention Credit refund. Debt forgiveness works just fine — when the check goes to creditors and corporations.
Which raises an obvious question: if AFSA objects to interest rate relief, fights protections for vulnerable borrowers, and attacks debt relief, what solution is it actually offering consumers who are already underwater?
Meanwhile, the service AFSA wants to destroy actually works. Consumers in debt relief programs cut their debt by an average of nearly 32% after fees. They save $2.64 for every $1.00 in fees paid. The industry is regulated by the FTC and the CFPB. Upfront fees are banned. Consumers can walk away anytime. Every dollar a family saves is a dollar AFSA’s members lose.
AFSA lobbied against protections for domestic violence survivors and military families. Its own board members have paid tens of millions in fines. And now this group wants to pose as the consumer’s champion in the debt relief fight.
Congress should welcome debate about debt relief. But that debate should be informed by the facts—and by the record of the organizations seeking to shape it.
Before Congress accepts AFSA’s attacks on debt relief, lawmakers should ask a simple question: if this is what the organization calls consumer advocacy, who exactly is it fighting for?
Leif Larson is a messaging consultant and media strategist for multiple political candidates and issue campaigns across the country.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
(DCNF)
