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ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION
NEWS: September 14, 2016 NEWS is brought to you by AFSPA Endorsed SUPPLIERS |
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CFPB ignored positive payday loan customer 'Tell Your Story' testimonials
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - New documents released reveal for the first time more than 12,000 positive testimonials that payday loan customers submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as part of the Bureau's 'Tell Your Story' initiative. These positive consumer stories, which comprise 98% of the payday loan-related submissions, have never been made public before. Instead, the Bureau buried and ignored these real-life customer stories as it marched forward with proposed rules that would restrict access to credit for millions of Americans.
The customer stories were unearthed through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed December 31, 2015 by a representative of the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA) - the trade association that represents the short-term lending industry. During the five-year period covered by the FOIA request, 12,308 comments of the 12,546 comments submitted on short-term loans praised the industry and its products and services, or otherwise indicated positive experiences.
The FOIA documents also revealed only an extremely small number of critical payday lending comments were submitted to the CFPB-just 240 or less than two percent. What's more, the vast majority of these critical comments were either mistakenly categorized as payday comments or they relate to scams and unregulated lenders that the CFPB's proposed rule fails to address.
* Of the 12,546 comments submitted to the CFPB's 'Tell Your Story' portal, 12,308 comments (or more than 98%) praised the industry and its products and services.
* Fewer than 240 customer comments (less than two percent) were negative.
* Of the 240 negative comments, 84 comments were mistakenly categorized as payday lending comments. They did not reference the payday lending industry, but rather bank complaints, insurance complaints, and student loan complaints, to name a few examples.
* Of the 240 negative comments, 74 comments related to payday lending scams and/or unregulated lenders, both important consumer protection issues that the CFPB's proposed rule fails to address.
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Payday Business Owners:
HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOUR '
FIGHT BACK PACKET
'?
If you HAVE.....ARE YOU IMPLEMENTING IT?
It's YOUR industry, YOUR future, so
get us YOUR
Contact Info,
# of Stores and where they are
so we can get
a complete package out to you
TODAY!
or
Watch for the upcoming CFSA webinar, FREE for ALL members
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The public comment period has begun and will continue through October 7th.
Our goal is to generate as many different comment letters from our member companies,
including you, your employees, business associates, contacts and customers.
YOU need to get involved to protect
your business,
your customers, your industry.
We will send you a "FIGHT BACK PACKET"
with information about the CFPB's comment period and how to send a letter to the regulators in Washington
to prevent this rule from harming your business and denying your customers access to credit.
Get involved and you can change the rule!
Call us toll-free at
1.888.544.2313
for more information
or to get your
"
FIGHT BACK PACKET
"
or
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CFSA FOIA request to CFPB yields positive comments from payday loan customers
By Barbara S. Mishkin on September 9th, 2016
The Consumer Financial Services Association of America (CFSA) issued a statement in which it reported that documents it received from the CFPB in response to a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request filed on December 31, 2015 "reveal for the first time more than 12,000 positive testimonials that payday loan customers submitted to the [CFPB] as part of the Bureau's "Tell Your Story" initiative."
According to the CFSA, during the five-year period covered by the FOIA request, 12,308 comments (or more than 98%) of the 12,546 comments submitted on short-term loans praised the industry and its products and services, or otherwise indicated positive experiences. The CFSA reported that the FOIA documents revealed that only an extremely small number of critical payday lending comments were submitted to the CFPB - just 240 or less than 2%. (According to the CFSA, of the 240 negative comments, 84 comments were mistakenly categorized as payday lending comments.)
The CFSA observed that this data is consistent with complaint data from the CFPB and FTC. It stated that "[s]ince the CFPB's complaint portal came online in 2011, complaints regarding payday loans have been miniscule - just 1.5% of all complaints. Meanwhile, these complaints continue to decline." The CFSA also stated that "[i]n its summary of 2015 consumer complaints, the FTC found that just 0.003% of more than three million complaints related to payday lending."
The CFPB issued its payday loan proposal in June 2016 and comments are due by October 7, 2016. The CFSA asserted that, by pursuing this proposal, the CFPB is "ignoring the positive experiences shared by consumers."
Read the article at CFPB Monitor
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Payday Loans Vindicated After Obama Accidentally Discovers (And Ignores) The Truth
If we've learned anything over the past 8 years, it is that facts don't matter to the Obama Administration. What the Obama Administration wants, the Obama Administration gets - no matter what the costs might be.
Case in point: the Administration's insistence on banning payday loans despite the fact that there is an overwhelming need and positive reception for them.
The Obama Administration refers to payday loans as "predatory" and "a threat to low-income Americans." They claim that these institutions charging low-income Americans premiums to receive quick money is the equivalent of extortion.
The problem is that testimonies from the payday loan recipients themselves shows otherwise. Low-income Americans don't feel that payday lenders are taking advantage of them. In fact, their thoughts on the matter are quite the opposite - They love everything about payday loans - the affordability, the timeliness, and the helpfulness of the lenders.
This point was made abundantly clear earlier this week, when a Freedom of Information Act request forced the unwilling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to finally release the 12,500 testimonials that payday loan customers submitted to the Bureau. It was found that 98% of all of the submissions demonstrated a positive view of payday loans. Many consumers cited being impressed by the courteousness and helpfulness of the payday lenders and made it clear that the loans were convenient and fit comfortably within their budgets.
Below is an excerpt from just one of the overwhelmingly positive responses:
I really enjoyed working with my local payday lending store and I think my story is important. Being able to get a loan for a few hundred dollars was not only easy but it was a necessity. There are no other avenues out there that can lend money like that which are not tied to losing a valuable piece of property or giving up your car entirely. This was a great way to make it work for me.
It's no wonder that the CFPB tried to hide these testimonies for so long - they knew their exposure would inevitably deflate the Obama Administration's argument against the industry.
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MicroBilt Hires John Hambrick as Senior Vice President of Business Development
Sep 12, 2016 Sean Albert
MicroBilt, the leader in risk management information and alternative credit data announces the addition of John Hambrick, Senior Vice President of Business Development. Hambrick will manage the company's collections vertical and be responsible for integration alliances as well as unique product and market needs. He will lead the effort in expanding the depth and breadth of the MicroBilt product suite.
Hambrick returns to MicroBilt after 16 years and has over 30 years of collections industry experience. He brings with him a rich history and focus on collection and distribution of bankruptcy, right party verification products and deceased information to help organizations better manage their customer portfolios. He was also a major contributor in the expansion and growth of the BANKO/Dolan information company with their bankruptcy monitoring services to major creditors.
"I am pleased to rejoin an organization like MicroBilt that is uniquely positioned to be the industry leader in collections products," said Hambrick.
"John's successful track record in business development will be invaluable to us as we continue to identify additional industry and market opportunities," says MicroBilt CEO Walt Wojciechowski. "He maintains strong relationships with industry leaders and we look forward to great success with him on board." Read more here
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Employers embracing financial wellness programs, survey shows
Companies are getting serious about financial wellness among employees. This comes amidst increasing awareness of the role that employers can play in educating their workers about how to better safeguard the wages they earn.
A new survey by Norwalk, Connecticut-based business services company Xerox of 500 benefit managers from large employers found that just over half are either planning on putting in place a financial well-being program for employees or are already in the process of implementing one.
Thirty-eight percent of employers already have a financial wellness program in place, such as financial health assessments, workshops, or presentations on financial planning or retirement planning calculators.
More than three-quarters of employers surveyed viewed such benefits as very effective in helping employees achieve financial stability.
Employers view financial planning assistance as a way to help employees reduce stress and keep them focused on their jobs. Past studies have highlighted the amount of work time lost by employees who are preoccupied with financial problems. Calculating the productivity lost from money-related worries is near-impossible, but clearly employers have determined that it's a problem big enough to do something about.
Read more at BENEFITS PRO
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FACTORTRUST ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF GROUND-BREAKING CRA GATEWAY TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT UNDERBANKED COMMUNITY
ATLANTA (Sept. 8, 2016) -
FactorTrust, The Alternative Credit Bureau, announces the launch of its CRA Gateway, a ground-breaking platform that enables lenders to securely report, store and share alternative credit data on underbanked consumers. Assessing creditworthiness and ability to repay is dependent on high quality data reporting. With the new CRA Gateway, FactorTrust customers will be able to report their data once and share it with multiple credit reporting agencies (CRAs) as they become partners with FactorTrust.
More data reported helps consumers climb the credit ladder. Historically, lenders serving the underbanked have not had the resources needed to report to multiple bureaus due to the complexities of strict data formatting requirements or processing requirements, such as real-time or daily reporting. This has impacted a broad range of underbanked consumers negatively, as their data has not been easily shared with all the bureaus. Now these consumers will have more opportunity to improve their scores as lenders report and share more data. Additionally, more financial providers will ultimately have access to a larger universe of consumers to make more well-balanced lending decisions.
The CRA Gateway will also provide for efficient compliance with the CFPB's Proposed Rule for lenders that offer certain types of loans[1]. The CFPB's Proposed Rule suggests a registered information system (RIS) environment that requires lenders to "pull from one RIS and report to all." The requirement creates a complex and resource-intensive process, as a common data reporting format does not exist today among alternative bureaus. The CRA Gateway, however, streamlines that process by facilitating credit reporting in a single format among lenders and RISs, as well as the standard reporting format required by the Big 3 bureaus (Metro-2) should any of the Big 3 become an RIS. The new platform will also process consumer disputes and error reporting to ensure the data remains accurate and complete.
The ability to more efficiently report credit information via FactorTrust's CRA Gateway ultimately helps lenders grow their business. At the same time, the solution aids the previously underserved Credit Climbers, consumers of all types with FICO credit scores below 700, but who are determined to improve their credit score in order to reach a certain lifestyle and access more credit options.
"The CRA Gateway solves a big problem for this segment of the industry: easy, efficient and cost-effective alternative credit data reporting. However, it's the consumers who should ultimately benefit," says FactorTrust CEO Greg Rable. "The vast majority of these consumers have been untracked by traditional credit markets. We've seen firsthand how these consumers improve their credit - at almost every scoring level - by having alternative loan performance data available. Our goal is to ensure more lenders have the opportunity to efficiently share their data, so that each time a consumer makes a smart financial choice, they have the opportunity to improve their credit score."
More details on the CRA Gateway, and how it helps lenders of covered loans to comply with the CFPB Proposed Rule, will be shared at FiSCA's 28th Annual Conference & Expo at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Oct. 20-23, 2016 and also at Lend360 and Money20/20.
For guidance on how to leverage this platform now, lenders should contact FactorTrust at 1-844-205-4111, email sales@factortrust.com or visit www.FactorTrust.com |
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COMMUNITY
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Check City today announced the results of its successful partnership with the Three Square Food Bank to collect non-perishable food, water and hygiene products and cash donations for the second annual Check City Checks Hunger food drive. The food drive collected more than 3,100 pounds of food, water and hygiene products and raised $100,000 in monetary donations to benefit Three Square, which will use the funds to provide approximately 300,000 meals for struggling individuals and families at risk of hunger in Southern Nevada communities.
For this year's fundraising campaign, Check City initially committed to match every customer donation dollar-for-dollar up to $20,000. Upon the campaign's conclusion in April, the company was so inspired by the generosity of its customers, who collectively contributed $24,700, that it matched all donations to provide a $50,000 check to Three Square. Three Square corporate partners Barrick Gold Corporation and NV Energy Foundation generously agreed to match the monetary donations from Check City's campaign, which doubled the total to $100,000.
With 32 branches across the state, Check City has provided financial solutions and other services to Nevadans for 17 years. The company encourages its customers and employees to participate in various charity drives and volunteerism throughout the year. In 2015, Check City began its partnership with Three Square, the largest food bank in Nevada and Southern Nevada's only food bank providing food assistance to the residents of Lincoln, Nye, Esmeralda and Clark Counties. In the partnership's inaugural year, Check City Checks Hunger collected 3,066 pounds of food and raised $14,700 in customer donations, which were matched dollar-for-dollar by Check City and
rounded up to $30,000.
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ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION
NEW FSBO LISTING:
2 TENNESSEE
AFSPA helps our members grow their Alternative Financial Services business by providing them with the best information, research, data, support, relationships and by vetting and presenting the best available product and service providers for the Alternative Financial Services Industry.
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| Alternative Financial Service Providers Association
757.737.4088 315 Tuscarora St., Lewiston, NY 14092
dan@afspassociation.com
www.afspassociation.com |
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