Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Can Banks Disrupt the Payday Lending Business?
Can Banks Disrupt the Payday Lending Business?
Dec 28, 2025 3:41 PM

Since its inception in the 1990s, the payday lending industry has grown at an astonishing pace. Currently, there are about 22,000 payday lending locations — more than two for every Starbucks — that originate an estimated $27 billion in annual loan volume.

But payday lenders may soon face some petition. A few of the largest consumer banks in America are considering goingto market with new small-dollar installment loan products, reports the American Banker.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the U.S. government’s consumer protection agency, isconsidering proposing rulesthat would end payday debt traps by requiring lenders to take steps to make sure consumers can repay their loans. One of the proposals is to exempt lenders from certain requirements if the amount the consumer is required to pay each month is no more than 5 percent of the consumer’s gross monthly e. According to American Banker:

[T]he banks said if the 5% exemption is part of the proposal, they believe they can offer a product that would satisfy regulators. A mockup of what the product could look like would be a $500 five-month loan for a borrower with an annual e of $30,000 and monthly payments of $125 (or 5% of the borrower’s $2,500 average monthly e). After assuming a 6% loss rate (which would parable to similar installment loans currently on the market), automation expenses and servicing fees, a bank could net roughly $70 while the borrower would be on the hook for $125. The average cost of a similar payday loan product would be closer to $750.

“The 5% payment option is the only part of the CFPB proposal that could save millions of borrowers billions of dollars,” said Nick Bourke, director of the small-dollar loans project at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “It would enhance underwriting while pliance costs by capping the monthly payment at 5% of the borrower’s e with a term up to six months.”

The banks wouldn’t make much money off of these types of loans, but as the article notes, they would increase goodwill with munities and potentially entice under-banked consumers to use other banking services and products.

The CFPB is set to announce the beginning of the payday lending rulemaking process next Thursday, June 2nd at a field hearing in Kansas City.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Grading Kids by Race?
In his famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. declared, I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. MLK decried equality for children of all races, and his monumental contribution to the realization of this dream should forever be remembered. However, it seems that some...
Audio: Anthony Bradley on Race Relations in the Wake of the Zimmerman Verdict
On Tuesday eveninig, Anthony Bradley – Acton Research Fellow andassociate professor of theology at The King’s College in New York City – joined hostSheila Liaugminas on Relevant Radio’sA Closer Look to discuss the sensitive topic of race relations in America, especially in light of the verdict in the George Zimmerman case in Florida. Bradley gives his perspective on the state of race relations, and offers advice on how people of good will can have honest and forthright discussions about issues...
What is Religious Freedom?
In its fullest and most robust sense, religion is the human person’s being in right relation to the divine, says Robert George, and all of us have a duty, in conscience, to seek the truth and to honor the freedom of all men and women everywhere to do the same: . . . the existential raising of religious questions, the honest identification of answers, and the fulfilling of what one sincerely believes to be one’s duties in the light of...
Human Action: A Positive Environmental Footprint
“Being less bad is not good.” This is a major theme of Cradle to Cradle, written by architect William McDonough and former Greenpeace chemist Dr. Michael Braungart back in 2002. The book arrived like a tidal wave on the green movement and exposed the categorical deficiencies and uselessness of tags like, “reduce, reuse, recycle.” The problem highlighted in the 2002 book is not that we need to simply damage the environment less but, even worse, we lack the entrepreneurial creativity...
Brother Attorneys File Lawsuit Against HHS Mandate
Michael and Shaun Willis, brothers and attorneys at Willis & Willis, PLC in Kalamazoo, Mich., have filed suit against the federal government’s mandate regarding the inclusion of artificial birth control, abortificients and abortion as part of employee health care. The brothers are mitted Christians and staunchly pro-life; one is Catholic, one Protestant. In addition to their law practice, they have a legal aid organization, doing pro bono work for the homeless in southeast Michigan. They also fund scholarships for children...
For Europe’s Youth, an Attitude Adjustment is Required
Humility is probably one of the most difficult human virtues to achieve. For me, as a Hungarian intern at the Acton Institute, listening to Samuel Gregg’s June lecture in Grand Rapids on his new book, ing Europe about the Old Continent’s crisis is instructive. Relations between the United States and major European powers have been testy from time to time, of course, but Europe seems to lack self-criticism. Aging Europe, an unsustainable social model, a two-speed Europe: these are some...
Should Christians Be Worried About Government Surveillance?
Ed Stetzter thinks so. In a Christianity Today article, Stetzer says our fundamental rights – rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights – are getting abused. He says alarm bells should be sounding among Christians, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Our Founding Fathers saw the Bill of Rights as providing barriers against government overreach and abuse. People (particularly people in governments with power) could not be trusted to have no checks on their power. Why? Well, some...
5 Business Activities That Imitate God
It’s e mon for Christians to openly ponder and discuss the ways in which we might glorify God through our work. Yet even with this newfound attention, it can be easy to forget that the very businesses launched to harness and facilitate such work are themselves declaring the glory of God, albeit in subtle, unspoken ways. In an essay posted at Christianity 9 to 5, author and theologian Wayne Grudem explores this angle a bit further, affirming the variety of...
Acton Kern Fellow Named Campus Dean at Moody
Christopher Brooks, a Kern Fellow at Acton, was recently named campus dean at Moody Theological Seminary in Michigan. Brooks is a senior pastor at Evangel Ministries in Detroit and he is the host of the Equipped for Life radio broadcast which airs daily on Salem Communications-Detroit Affiliate. John Jelinek, vice president and dean of Moody Theological Seminary, said that Brooks “has demonstrated a mitment to the advancement of the gospel and the work of Christ throughout Southeastern Michigan and I...
Video: Overcoming Poverty In America
Cheryl Miller, Executive Director of Perpetual Help Home (a PovertyCure partner) offers insight to poverty in America in this new video. Miller, an Acton University alumnus, focuses on the dignity of the human being. ...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved