In early October of this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized its payday loan rule. In a press release, the agency described the rule's benefits this way:
The CFPB rule aims to stop debt traps by putting in place strong ability-to-repay protections. These protections apply to loans that require consumers to repay all or most of the debt at once. Under the new rule, lenders must conduct a “full-payment test” to determine upfront that borrowers can afford to repay their loans without re-borrowing. For certain short-term loans, lenders can skip the full-payment test if they offer a “principal-payoff option” that allows borrowers to pay off the debt more gradually. The rule requires lenders to use credit reporting systems registered by the Bureau to report and obtain information on certain loans covered by the proposal. The rule allows less risky loan options, including certain loans typically offered by community banks and credit unions, to forgo the full-payment test. The new rule also includes a “debit attempt cutoff” for any short-term loan, balloon-payment loan, or longer-term loan with an annual percentage rate higher than 36 percent that includes authorization for the lender to access the borrower’s checking or prepaid account. [The specific requirements of the rule are set out after the jump.]
Yesterday, an American Banker opinion piece entitled CFPB's rule will hurt consumers defended the payday-loan industry and called for Congress to overrule the CFPB rule. The piece's author, Drew Breakspear, is the commissioner of Florida's Office of Financial Regulation. Breakspear says the congressional override has bipartisan support. The sponsorship of the override is, in fact, bipartisan.
The specific requirements of the rule include:
- Full-payment test: Lenders are required to determine whether the borrower can afford the loan payments and still meet basic living expenses and major financial obligations. For payday and auto title loans that are due in one lump sum, full payment means being able to afford to pay the total loan amount, plus fees and finance charges within two weeks or a month. For longer-term loans with a balloon payment, full payment means being able to afford the payments in the month with the highest total payments on the loan. The rule also caps the number of loans that can be made in quick succession at three.
- Principal-payoff option for certain short-term loans: Consumers may take out a short-term loan of up to $500 without the full-payment test if it is structured to allow the borrower to get out of debt more gradually. Under this option, consumers may take out one loan that meets the restrictions and pay it off in full. For those needing more time to repay, lenders may offer up to two extensions, but only if the borrower pays off at least one-third of the original principal each time. To prevent debt traps, these loans cannot be offered to borrowers with recent or outstanding short-term or balloon-payment loans. Further, lenders cannot make more than three such loans in quick succession, and they cannot make loans under this option if the consumer has already had more than six short-term loans or been in debt on short-term loans for more than 90 days over a rolling 12-month period. The principal-payoff option is not available for loans for which the lender takes an auto title as collateral.
- Less risky loan options: Loans that pose less risk to consumers do not require the full-payment test or the principal-payoff option. This includes loans made by a lender who makes 2,500 or fewer covered short-term or balloon-payment loans per year and derives no more than 10 percent of its revenue from such loans. These are usually small personal loans made by community banks or credit unions to existing customers or members. In addition, the rule does not cover loans that generally meet the parameters of “payday alternative loans” authorized by the National Credit Union Administration. These are low-cost loans which cannot have a balloon payment with strict limitations on the number of loans that can be made over six months. The rule also excludes from coverage certain no-cost advances and advances of earned wages made under wage-advance programs offered by employers or their business partners.
- Debit attempt cutoff: The rule also includes a debit attempt cutoff that applies to short-term loans, balloon-payment loans, and longer-term loans with an annual percentage rate over 36 percent that includes authorization for the lender to access the borrower’s checking or prepaid account. After two straight unsuccessful attempts, the lender cannot debit the account again unless the lender gets a new authorization from the borrower. The lender must give consumers written notice before making a debit attempt at an irregular interval or amount. These protections will give consumers a chance to dispute any unauthorized or erroneous debit attempts, and to arrange to cover unanticipated payments that are due. This should mean fewer consumers being debited for payments they did not authorize or anticipate, or charged multiplying fees for returned payments and insufficient funds.
