For several decades, Margot Saunders has been a leading policy expert and advocate on consumer credit issues affecting low-income households. She did most of this work as a managing attorney and senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC). Previously, among other positions, she had served as the consumer specialist for the North Carolina Legal Resource Center.

Saunders has testified dozens of times before the U.S. Congress, has advised numerous government agencies and nonprofit groups on credit issues, and has co-authored or contributed to several NCLC books on these issues. She has written amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Courts and multiple federal appellate courts, and has served as an expert witness and consultant to private and government attorneys in cases involving predatory mortgage lending, high-cost installment loans, credit math, and true lender issues.

Among other contributions, Saunders played a lead role in protecting homeowners from predatory mortgages under federal and state law, incorporating consumer protections into legislation on electronic signatures, developing rules to shield federal benefits in bank accounts, increasing safeguards for international remittances, and endeavoring to limit invasive and illegal telemarketing scam calls and texts.

Saunders has been a member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council, the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer Advisory Committee, and the University of North Carolina’s School of Law Center for Banking and Finance. She has also served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. She has received numerous awards including the Vern Countryman Consumer Law Award. Saunders earned a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina Law School.