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Janneke Ratcliffe
Janneke Ratcliffe, the CFPB’s Assistant Director of Financial Education, was previously a senior research fellow at the Center for America Progress. Ratcliffe worked at this leftwing advocacy group (funded by George Soros) for nearly 5 years. Ratcliffe previously worked at Self-Help, an arm of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). The Center for Responsible Lending has come under fire for promoting high-risk loans leading up to the ’08 financial crisis. While CRL has taken heat for its role in expanding loans to under-qualified borrowers, Ratcliffe defended its practices in a CSPAN interview 2008—shortly before Fannie and Freddie were bailed out. In a CSPAN interview, Ratcliffe boasted that Self-Help had “secured a commitment from Fannie Mae to buy billions of dollars worth of CRA mortgages from Self-Help provided that Self-Help would take recourse and that it would pay for any losses that arose from defaults.” Ratcliffe also stated “the amount of cash a borrower had to bring to the closing table” was sometimes “as little as 1% of the purchase price.” Ratcliffe added “there was also flexibility around credit history and income both in terms of thresholds and documentation.” Ratcliffe is now tasked with enhancing financial education at the CFPB. http://www.c-span.org/video/?282931-1/responsible-homeownership