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CFPB’s move to gut consumer protections shows need for state-level payday lending reform
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) should serve consumers, not the industries it regulates. That’s why Alabama Arise submitted a comment last week objecting to the CFPB’s plan to reverse an important consumer protection. And that’s why Arise will continue to push for needed reforms at the Legislature. The federal ability-to-repay rule, set to take [...]
Fact Sheet
Federal ability-to-repay rule protects payday borrowers, Alabama Arise tells CFPB
Director Kathleen Kraninger: I read with disappointment your recent proposal to rescind the thoroughly considered, factually grounded Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule provision mandating ability-to-repay determinations by lenders offering payday, title and balloon loans. As a policy organization working to advance the public good in a state with wholly insufficient consumer protections for borrowers, [...]
Blog
Arise legislative recap: May 10, 2019
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is threatening to reverse a rule that promotes financial security for borrowers across the country. This week, we look at the CFPB’s proposal to eliminate a requirement for payday lenders to determine whether borrowers have the ability to repay before lending to them. Arise’s Mike Nicholson discusses this proposed [...]
Blog
Payday lending is crushing Alabama communities. Our new report offers solutions
Alabama has more payday and title lenders than hospitals, high schools, movie theaters and county courthouses combined. The industry churns a profit out of desperate, financially fragile borrowers. And unfortunately, Alabama’s weak consumer protections provide them with plenty. We explore these problems in depth and offer policy solutions in “Broke: How Payday Lenders Crush Alabama [...]
Report
Broke: How payday lenders crush Alabama communities
Alabama Arise and Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice teamed up to produce this report on the history, financial effects and human impact of high-cost payday lending in our state. The report highlights and executive summary are below. Click here to read the full report, or click the "Download" button at the top of [...]
Blog
The CFPB should keep protections for payday borrowers
Borrowers across the country deserve stronger protections, not weaker ones. Unfortunately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently decided to reopen its 2017 rulemaking on payday lending. And that move would put the financial health of hundreds of thousands of people at risk. The CFPB director seeks to eliminate a requirement for payday lenders to [...]
Fact Sheet
30 days to pay: A simple but important step forward on payday lending reform in Alabama
Alabama borrowers pay interest rates of 456 percent a year on payday loans. These high-cost loans trap thousands of struggling Alabamians in a debt cycle that deepens poverty and hurts the state’s economy. SB 75, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, along with a House version sponsored by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, would extend the [...]
News Releases
Medicaid expansion, end to grocery tax highlight Alabama Arise’s 2019 priorities
Medicaid expansion and legislation to end the state sales tax on groceries are among the top goals on Alabama Arise’s 2019 legislative agenda. More than 200 Arise members picked the organization’s issue priorities at its annual meeting Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, in Montgomery. The seven issues chosen were: Tax reform, including untaxing groceries and closing [...]
Fact Sheet
Payday lending reform: Ending a debt trap in Alabama
On busy highways and run-down streets across the state, you can’t miss them: big, bright signs promising easy money. From payday loans to auto title pawns to anticipation loans on tax refunds, Alabamians face a dizzying array of credit services designed to trap consumers in financial quicksand. This fact sheet highlights the pitfalls of payday [...]
Fact Sheet
SB 284 offers Alabama consumers protections from high-cost loans and moves lending reform forward
Most states have laws against usury, or excessive interest. Alabama’s Small Loan Act of 1959 caps the interest rate on traditional small, short-term loans at 3 percent a month, or an annual percentage rate (APR) of 36 percent. But more recent laws covering payday and auto title lenders allow APRs many times higher than that. For [...]