Financial Service Centers of America Statement in Response to CFPB Proposed Small Dollar Rule

WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Financial Service Centers of America (FiSCA), the national trade association representing 5,000 member financial service center locations around the U.S., issued the following statement today in response to the proposed small dollar loan rules released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Kansas City, MO:

"The proposed small dollar loan rules announced today by the CFPB are an overly prescriptive regulatory scheme for a most basic form of credit. In releasing these rules, the CFPB has ignored academic research, the facts introduced during the agency's own small business panel, the voices of more than 105,000 people who signed the White House's own "We the People Petition", and, most importantly, the reality faced by the millions of people who use payday loans responsibly every day," said Ed D'Alessio, FiSCA's Executive Director.

"Based on these proposed rules, the CFPB has singled out low- and moderate- income Americans who are fully able to make their own financial decisions for discriminatory treatment. By fashioning rules that dismiss the way in which millions of ordinary Americans live their lives the CFPB has denied these people credit and created a new form of redlining."

"The CFPB has also failed to heed the voices of members of Congress, state Attorneys General, state legislators and many others who have urged the agency to examine state laws and the systems already in place to regulate the industry before erasing existing markets that work for consumers."

"The CFPB has failed to answer the fundamental question of what will replace legal, regulated payday loans that are the product of state legislative determinations and that have been in existence for decades. By announcing rules that will almost certainly eliminate this most basic, transparent and reasonably-available credit product, the CFPB has told millions of Americans where they should go: to unregulated, illegal, offshore, unscrupulous Internet providers; to street providers; to loan sharks, and to others who do not comply with the law, who do not ensure consumer protection and who prey upon those for whom legal means of obtaining credit have been eliminated."

"We will engage our customers in this rulemaking process and make every effort to ensure their voices are heard."

About FiSCA
FiSCA is a national trade association representing the Financial Service Center (FSC) industry.  FiSCA members offer a wide array of necessary financial products and services to tens of millions of Americans each year in accordance with state and federal law. Additional information about FiSCA is available at www.fisca.org.

SOURCE Financial Service Centers of America

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