“It meant that the entire industry had to move to a safer product, or bear increased financial risks to their own balance sheets,” said Mitria Spotser of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).
Minnesota's law is not a flat out 36% rate cap, but by putting strict limits on payday loans with rates between 36% and 50%, it could drastically reduce the product's availability. The law will "disrupt the predatory business model" of payday lenders so that they stop "creating long-term debt traps for consumers," said Yasmin Farahi, deputy director of state policy...
Online lenders have used the Avant and Marlette settlements as a model, choosing to get a state license and be supervised by Colorado financial regulators. Those fintechs are considered the “true lender” in a transaction, not their out-of-state bank partners. But the settlements addressed misconduct only after it occurred, said Ellen Harnick, the director of state policy at the Center...
“The debt trap is very much by design and it’s how payday lenders’ business model works,” said Yasmin Farahi, deputy director of state policy and senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending. “They succeed by making sure their customers fail. They target low-income communities and communities of color, and it’s a model that’s based on their customers failing...
Interest rates on payday loans can run into the hundreds of percentage points. The Center for Responsible Lending reported Delaware’s rate runs nearly 400%
Seventy-five-year-old Army veteran Lester Rodgers, Jr. lives in Chatham County on a fixed income. When his wife passed away, he worried that he would not have enough money to keep his home. Lester saw a TV ad from Themis Law, PLLC, which claimed to be a national law firm located in Washington, D.C. with expertise in saving peoples’ homes. In...
Aaron Glantz and Monica Campbell | The Los Angeles Times
“People are struggling,” said Andrew Kushner, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, an advocacy group. “If you get money this week, that’s less money to pay your expenses next week and you’re even worse off because of the fee.”
Another letter signatory, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), called out the GOP-led effort just ahead of the vote Wednesday. "This is yet another political stunt from some members of Congress to prevent tens of millions of borrowers, including low-wealth individuals, service members, public service workers, women, and people of color from receiving relief ahead of the Supreme Court's decision...
Rochelle Sparko is a credit repair expert with the Center for Responsible Lending. She reviewed Litigation Practice Group's website and noticed a blog post that provided a general overview of debt relief programs. It said these programs lead to "ceasing of collection activity." "That's just a lie," Sparko said. "I mean, there is nothing that stops debt collection efforts other...
Yasmin Farahi, deputy director of state policy at the Center for Responsible Lending, agrees. "A lot of the bills look similar and have been drafted off the same model bill," she said. "It's important that a regulatory regime treats [these services] as loans and there are appropriate consumer protections that go along with other loan products."