Month: May 2023

Compliance with the New York Commercial Finance Disclosure Law (“CFDL”) is required by August 1, 2023. The CFDL applies to multiple types of commercial financing products and requires providers to deliver disclosures when “extending a specific offer” for commercial financing in amounts of $2.5 million or less to a “recipient,” defined as a person who applies for commercial financing and is made a specific offer of commercial financing by a provider. See our ALERTS dated Feb. 10, 2023, Sept. 29, 2022 and Sept. 27, 2021. Read More

On May 1, 2023, both chambers of the Florida legislature passed HB 1267, amending the Consumer Finance Act, Florida’s licensed lender statute. Most notably, the proposed amendments would modify the interest rate provision for loans up to $25,000 from the current tiered rate caps to a flat maximum rate of 36% per annum for all loans up to $25,000. The interest rate cap for loans greater than $25,000 was not affected. The bill also proposes to increase the statutorily mandated grace period on delinquency charges to 12 days (up from the current 10 day grace period). Read More

On May 4, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) published a report on medical credit cards and installment loans, highlighting the Bureau’s continued interest in the effect of medical debt on consumers. See our ALERTS of Feb. 15, 2022 and March 22, 2022. The report briefly details the history of medical credit cards and loans and highlights the problems and consumer risks the CFPB believes to be inherent in such specialty financing products, such as the expanded uses of medical credit cards and “confusing” product structures and advertising. Read More

Turning away industry commentators, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) has declared merchant cash advances “credit” for purposes of small business data collection under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1691 et seq. (“ECOA”), with potentially important further compliance implications for merchant cash advance providers, many of whom take the position that their merchant cash advances are true “sales” of future accounts receivable, not “credit” per se. See Small Business Lending Data Collection under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B) (consumerfinance.gov) (effective 90 days after date of publication in the Federal Register, with compliance dates for select institutions as early as October 1, 2024); see our Alert of Mar. 28, 2023. Read More