Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Can Banks Disrupt the Payday Lending Business?
Can Banks Disrupt the Payday Lending Business?
Dec 23, 2025 1:23 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
Verse of the Day
  Joshua 22:5 In-Context   3 For a long time now-to this very day-you have not deserted your fellow Israelites but have carried out the mission the Lord your God gave you.   4 Now that the Lord your God has given them rest as he promised, return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Habakkuk 3:1-2   (Read Habakkuk 3:1-2)   The word prayer seems used here for an act of devotion. The Lord would revive his work among the people in the midst of the years of adversity. This may be applied to every season when the church, or believers, suffer under afflictions and trials. Mercy is what we...
Verse of the Day
  1 John 4:18 In-Context   16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.   17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus....
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on 1 John 3:16-21   (Read 1 John 3:16-21)   Here is the condescension, the miracle, the mystery of Divine love, that God would redeem the church with his own blood. Surely we should love those whom God has loved, and so loved. The Holy Spirit, grieved at selfishness, will leave the selfish heart without comfort, and...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Romans 5:1-5   (Read Romans 5:1-5)   A blessed change takes place in the sinner's state, when he becomes a true believer, whatever he has been. Being justified by faith he has peace with God. The holy, righteous God, cannot be at peace with a sinner, while under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away the...
Verse of the Day
  Matthew 7:24-25 In-Context   22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?'   23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'   24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Complete Concise   Chapter Contents   The apostle admires the love of God in making believers his children. (1,2) The purifying influence of the hope of seeing Christ, and the danger of pretending to this, and living in sin. (3-10) Love to the brethren is the character of real Christians. (11-15) That love described by its actings. (16-21)...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Romans 3:19-20   (Read Romans 3:19-20)   It is in vain to seek for justification by the works of the law. All must plead guilty. Guilty before God, is a dreadful word; but no man can be justified by a law which condemns him for breaking it. The corruption in our nature, will for ever stop...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Matthew 6:25-34   (Read Matthew 6:25-34)   There is scarcely any sin against which our Lord Jesus more warns his disciples, than disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares about the things of this life. This often insnares the poor as much as the love of wealth does the rich. But there is a carefulness about temporal things which...
Verse of the Day
  Romans 4:25 In-Context   23 The words it was credited to him were written not for him alone,   24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness-for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.   25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. ...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved