Installment Loans Come Under Fire by the CFPB Regulatory Guns
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is usually referred to as the CFPB, has consistently cut through traditional checks and balances to expedite financial reform in the wake of 2008's mortgage and banking crisis. The bureau has used questionable techniques and astonishing speed in its investigations against the payday loan industry and other financial institutions such as banks. After making a series of controversial pronouncements and recommendations for payday lending reform, the bureau has turned its attention to installment loans. The bureau's reforms of installment lending could affect a broader coalition of financial stakeholders than the relatively limited payday loan industry according to reform details that were publicized by Files.consumerfinance.gov.
CFPB's Big Guns Target Installment Loans and …show more content…
Unfortunately, the CFPB doesn't seem inclined to limit its attacks to payday lenders but has taken aim at a broad cross-section of financial interests. The installment loan regulations threaten banks, credit unions, automotive credit departments, mortgage companies and other financial companies according to a report posted at Americanbanker.com. Executive Vice-President Bill Himpler of the American Financial Services Association complains that the CFPB has lumped long-term credit products with payday loans despite more than 100 years of offering these products. "These are really two different markets – they're like apples and oranges," explained Himpler. "It would be akin to lumping a hamburger joint like McDonald's and Morton's Steakhouse into the same category just because both are