Sec. 2. Findings
228 words·~1 min read·
/bill/115/s/1659/is/section-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds that— attempts have been made to prohibit usurious interest rates in America since colonial times; at the Federal level, in 2006, Congress enacted a Federal 36-percent annualized usury cap for servicemembers and their families for covered credit products, as defined by the Department of Defense, which curbed payday, car title, and tax refund lending around military bases; notwithstanding such attempts to curb predatory lending, high-cost lending persists in all 50 States due to loopholes in State laws, safe harbor laws for specific forms of credit, and the exportation of unregulated interest rates permitted by preemption; due to the lack of a comprehensive Federal usury cap, consumers annually pay approximately $14,000,000,000 on high-cost overdraft loans, as much as approximately $7,000,000,000 on storefront and online payday loans, $3,800,000,000 on car title loans, and additional amounts in unreported revenues on high-cost online installment loans; cash-strapped consumers pay on average approximately 400 percent annual interest for payday loans, 300 percent annual interest for car title loans, up to 17,000 percent or higher for bank overdraft loans, and triple-digit rates for online installment loans; a national maximum interest rate that includes all forms of fees and closes all loopholes is necessary to eliminate such predatory lending; and alternatives to predatory lending that encourage small dollar loans with minimal or no fees, installment payment schedules, and affordable repayment periods should be encouraged.