News Topic: Usury

I have a new paper up on SSRN . It's called  The New Usury: The Ability-to-Repay Revolution in Consumer Finance . It's a paper that's been percolating a while--some folks might remember seeing me present it (virtually) at the 2020 Consumer ... Read full article

In 2021 Illinois passed its Predatory Loan Prevention Act  (PLPA), which imposes a 36% military APR (MAPR) cap on all loans made by non-bank or credit union or insurance company lenders. Not surprisingly, the law has not been popular with higher cost ... Read full article

In 2020 the Massachusetts Attorney General brought one of the most significant consumer finance cases in years , a suit against subprime auto lender Credit Acceptance Corporation.  If you haven’t heard of CAC, it’s a one of the largest subprime auto ... Read full article

The House is schedule to take up a vote on repealing the OCC's " Fake Lender Rule ," that would deem a loan to be made by a bank for usury purposes as long as the bank is a lender of record on the loan. Under the rule, issued in the waning ... Read full article

I filed an amicus brief today in support of the challenge of eight state attorneys general to the FDIC's Valid-When-Made Rule . ... 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

I've been saying for quite a while that the OCC is a "problem agency"  that is seriously in need of reform. An article in Politico today underscores the problem. The OCC—under a civil servant acting Comptroller—has begun an active lobbying ... 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

Short term (payday) loans and high interest consumer installment loans continue to deplete low income households of micro dollars and their communities of macro dollars. Although the CFPB seems intent on supporting the depletions, a good number of states ... Read full article

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

I don't like bullies.  And I just ran into a $3 trillion one.  JPMorgan Chase Bank, armed with six partners at two AmLaw 100 firms (Wilmer Hale and McGuire Woods) took the truly unusual step of filing an objection to an amicus curiae brief I filed in ... Read full article

I have filed an amicus brief  regarding "valid-when-made" in Rent-Rite Super Kegs West, Ltd. v. World Business Lenders, LLC . ... Read full article

It's been quite a week for "valid-when-made (up)". ... Read full article

FDIC and OCC filed an amicus brief  in the district court in an obscure small business bankruptcy case to which a bank was not even a party in order to defend the validity of a 120.86% loan that was made by a tiny community bank in Wisconsin (with its own ... Read full article

CFPB today put out an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the Qualified Mortgage (QM) Rule by letting the "GSE Patch" expire .  What the Bureau is proposing is truly dangerous.  While I haven’t liked some of the Bureau's other ... Read full article

A major issue in consumer finance regulation in mid-20th century was what counted as “credit” and was therefore subject to state usury laws and (after 1968) to the federal Truth in Lending Act. Many states had a time-price differential doctrine that held ... Read full article

Professor Peter Conti-Brown of the Wharton School has written a short article for Brookings decrying the Second Circuit’s 2015  Madden v. Midland Funding decision . Professor Conti-Brown doesn’t like the Madden decision for two reasons. First, he thinks ... Read full article

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