News Topic: Underbanked/Fringe Banking

I have a new draft article up on SSRN . It's called  The Financial Inclusion Trilemma . The abstract is below.  ... Read full article

Past  Credit Slips  guest blogger , Jim Hawkins from the University of Houston , and his student, Tiffany Penner, alerted me to their recent publication in the  Emory Law Journal  entitled, "Advertising Injustices: Marketing Race and Credit in ... Read full article

Following-up on my prior post , let’s talk more about what’s at stake in this little legislative kerfuffle in the Hawkeye state, as well as how consumer advocates should seize on this moment in a different way.   ... Read full article

Greetings, Slipsters ! I’m thrilled to be here guest blogging, and I thank the editors for having me. So with that, let me get started… Usury, preemption, and pandemic fitness are all colliding here in Iowa.   ... Read full article

In the Spring I am teaching a research and writing seminar called Advanced Commercial Law and Contracts. Credit Slips readers have been important resources for project ideas in the past, and I'd appreciate hearing what you have seen out in the world ... Read full article

Over at the Machine Lawyering blog -- organized and edited by the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Law Faculty’s Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development -- Slipster Nathalie Martin and I just posted some commentary about our new ... Read full article

Vijay Raghavan , who will be joining the Brooklyn Law School faculty this summer  and his colleague Tom James , shared a troubling observation about the payment of the recovery rebates ("Corona Cash" or "Mnuchin Mnoney") through direct ... Read full article

The Trump administration has just proposed a rule that declares open season on consumers for subprime lenders. ... Read full article

Facebook’s proposed Libra cryptocurrency project has truly stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy.  Critics have generally focused on Libra as a  currency  and the power of Facebook in society and its appropriation of users’ privacy.   ... Read full article

Historian Ed Balleisen and I have just posted a paper of interest to Credit Slips readers who are interested in consumer protection, financial crises, and inputs into post-crisis policymaking more generally. I will let the abstract speak for itself: ... Read full article

There's bi-partisan legislation pending that would prohibit the practice of installment lenders sending out unsolicited live convenience check loan :  you get an unsolicited check in the mail.  If you cash it, you've entered into a loan ... Read full article

The Washington Post has an interesting story about consumer installment lender Mariner Finance .  Three brief observations. ... Read full article

I just had the pleasure of reading Duke Law Professor Sara Sternberg Greene's paper  The Bootstrap Trap .  I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in the intersection of consumer credit and poverty law. ... Read full article

Robert Mayer of the University of Utah and I just finished an 18-month study of community approaches to controlling payday lending . The study concludes with ten lessons communities can use to pass similar ordinances on any subject matter. In The Power of ... Read full article

The CFPB has a new report out on auto title lending , and the findings are jaw-dropping. If ever there was a consumer financial product that looks like an exploding toaster , it is an auto title loan.  Default rates on auto title loans are one in three, ... Read full article

It’s easy for Progressives to get excited about the idea of postal banking: a public option for banking! What’s not to love? ... Read full article

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Payday loans are exceedingly expensive, often trapping borrowers into a cycle of rolling their loan over for many months while interest compounds. Postal banking has been suggested as a way to provide people with better access to less-expensive loans. And ... Read full article