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ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION
June 18, 2020
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Payday Lenders Serve Those Others Do Not
Our members paused marketing efforts while offering flexibility to current loan customers, including the ability to skip or defer payments.
Members of the Online Lenders Alliance have acted responsibly and proactively to help consumers during this difficult time ("Payday Lenders Sidestep Ad Bans, State Restrictions," Page One, June 4). Our members paused marketing efforts while offering flexibility to current loan customers, including the ability to skip or defer payments, extend payment plans, waive fees for late or returned payments, freeze interest or pause collection activities. In some cases, lenders forgave loans entirely.
Wall Street Journal OPINION
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CALIFORNIA strips 'mini-CFPB' from budget
- California budget negotiators, facing a June 15 deadline to send Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom an updated spending plan, shelved a proposal this month to create a state consumer financial protection agency, which some have compared to a mini-CFPB, in favor of more urgent matters such as coronavirus relief funding.
- The proposal may be revived later in the budget process, policy experts said. Lawmakers have until Aug. 31 to finalize the 2020-21 state budget.
- Some state lawmakers, wary of giving Newsom too much control, have pushed for the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), as it would be called, to be established through a stand-alone bill rather than as a line item in a state budget. "This would allow the changes to be vetted by the policy committees that have expertise on the specific issues that are raised," the Legislative Analyst's Office said in a report, according to American Banker.
Read more at BANKING DIVE
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Consumer reporting and the CARES Act
Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act places important requirements on companies that furnish information to consumer reporting agencies about consumers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bureau previously issued a statement informing lenders they must comply with the credit reporting requirements of the CARES Act. Today, the Bureau released FAQs that will help ensure that consumers receive the credit reporting protections required by the CARES Act.
The FAQs address the credit reporting requirements of the CARES Act, including considerations for furnishers when reporting consumers as current as required by the CARES Act. The FAQs also clarify that reporting that a consumer is affected by a natural or declared disaster is not a substitute for complying with the CARES Act credit reporting requirements. In addition, the FAQs address the Bureau's guidance that provides temporary and targeted flexibility in the event CRAs or the furnisher experience challenges as a result of the pandemic in investigating consumer disputes. All CRAs and furnishers remain responsible for conducting reasonable investigations of consumer disputes in a timely fashion. The Bureau's statement makes clear that the Bureau expects CRAs and furnishers to make good faith efforts to investigate disputes as quickly as possible.
Read more at CFPB
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Millions of Job Losses Are at Risk of Becoming Permanent
Twenty-year-old William Lovely used to work at Jason's Deli in Virginia Beach, delivering catering orders to surrounding businesses. Now, thanks to the coronavirus, he's struggling to pay his bills.
Laid off in March, he's gone from regular hours and pay to gigging for UberEats or Instacart, earning up to $100 on some days but often coming home with almost nothing. While the restaurant is trying to slowly reopen, Lovely reckons the best he can hope for is a part-time position, requiring him to keep his second job if he's going to meet his expenses.
"My job stopped, but the bills don't," he said.
Lovely's experience goes to the heart of the dilemma facing the world economy as it gradually emerges from the virus-enforced lockdown and unprecedented recession: How many of the millions of lost jobs are gone for good?
Read more at BLOOMBERG
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U.S. Fed's Main Street lending facility likely to start with a whimper
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's most ambitious and complicated crisis relief program is set to launch in coming days but it is far from certain that the small and mid-sized businesses the $600 billion "Main Street Lending Facility" is meant to help will come clamoring for loans.
Two months into the economic crisis spurred by the novel coronavirus pandemic, some lobbyists, bankers and small business consultants say the loans may be too large to help many struggling businesses and some borrowers are worried about coming under public scrutiny.
Some lenders also say they are concerned about the balance sheet risks they could face by participating.
"From our lenders, I'm seeing very limited interest because of the large minimum loan size of a half million," said Paul Merski, an executive vice president at the Independent Community Bankers of America. Read more at REUTERS
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National Debt Holdings, LLC. is certified by 'Receivables Management Association International' as a 'Certified Receivables Business'.
We are also members of ACA International, the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals and rated an A+ by the Better Business Bureau.
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When we go back to eating out, more of us will pay with our phones
New York (CNN Business)Major restaurant chains are trying to make it easier for customers to get their food without touching anything but their own phones.
It's a trend that started before the pandemic hit and has only accelerated as consumers and restaurants adjust to a new normal, where contact with others is discouraged. Now, restaurants are betting people will want to peruse digital menus instead of physical ones and opt for mobile ordering rather than paying at the register with cash or credit card.
"The handling of cash creates consumer concerns about the spread of viruses," Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Kevin Johnson wrote in an open letter in early May describing the company's plan to reopen. He noted that Starbucks is adding new features to its app to include voice ordering through Siri and more opportunities for rewards. The app already shows which restaurants have mobile order and pickup so that customers can plan their visits and manage expectations before they get to the store.
Johnson predicted that "the mobile app will become the dominant form of payment."
Read more at CNN BUSINESS
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Direct mail is the best way to grow your lending portfolio!
Direct mail is the best way to acquire customers. With direct access to credit bureaus, you can accurately target the audience you want without the unnecessary market spend. We scan through thousands of credit attributes to identify the right audience for your portfolio.
MaxDecisions
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Wells Fargo signals substantial layoffs ahead
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Wells Fargo's cost-cutting efforts will include layoffs, most likely by the end of the year, Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry told investors at a Morgan Stanley conference on Wednesday.
"We now have the fact that we're in a public health crisis, and we've committed to keep people on while that is true. But there will come a time, I assume at some point this year, when we get back to executing on programs that are in place, and some that are still under development, that are designed to get our total expense base, which for us means our total headcount, to as lean a state as we can responsibly operate," said Shrewsberry, adding that automation and other changes can also contribute to expense cuts.
Read more at WSOCTV.COM
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Stimulus Payments Delivery During A Pandemic Using FedAccounts And Digital Tools
The open hearing on Task Force On Financial Technology held today, June 11, 2020 was fascinating. The panelists and their questioners from the House Committee On Financial Services who are members of the Task Force ranged over a spectrum of concerns and solutions around inclusion in banking. The fact that unbanked to the tune of 8.5 million families exist in the US is not new news. Without a bank account, cashing a stimulus check is very costly. The topic of the hearing was how to get stimulus payments to its intended recipients in the most efficient manner.
The expert witnesses, whose names can be seen in the bottom row of the image appended below, brought the debate out into the open. The questioners who were members of the two parties had their favorites and divergence of the two views seem to be clear. One focused on the duties and the charter of the Fed as providing an open and no or low cost financial utility to the public. The other for strengthening the existing payment rails and the two tier banking system; with a private-public partnership. Read more at FORBES
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ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION
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Alternative Financial Service Providers Association
757.737.4088 315 Tuscarora St., Lewiston, NY 14092
[email protected]
www.afspassociation.com |
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