Consumer credit access decreases by 4.5% to 8% when a borrower's home-state U.S. Senator chairs a powerful Senate committee. Credit access declines because lenders connected to powerful politicians feel protected and hence view fair-lending regulations as being less binding. We find that credit...

Consumers lose access to credit when their congressional district boundaries are irregularly redrawn to benefit a political party (i.e., are gerrymandered). We identify this effect by matching a longitudinal panel of consumer credit data with changes in congressional district boundaries...