ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION
ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATION

NEWS: January 28, 2016

NEWS is brought to you by AFSPA Endorsed & Certified SUPPLIERS

MicroBilt
CFPB To Hand Out Money; Trouble Is, Who Gets It?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is having trouble giving away money.
The latest controversy between the consumer watchdog agency and its mostly Republican critics in Congress involves an $80 million settlement Ally Financial Inc. paid back in late 2013.
Ally paid the money, plus a civil penalty of $18 million, to settle charges from the CFPB and the U.S. Department of Justice that Ally allowed dealers to charge higher interest rates from minority auto loan customers. Ally settled, though the lender denied at the time that it tolerated discrimination, and that any discrimination had taken place.
The CFPB said the $80 million would be used to reimburse an estimated 235,000 borrowers, who according to the feds were overcharged an average of $200 to $300 each, over the life of their loans. Read the article at FORBES
Got Direct Mail_
Got Direct Mail?

Installment loan success won't happen without highly targeted direct mail programs.
Walk-in business won't do it.

That's why finance companies spend $30,000 to $40,000 per store each year on direct mail offers.

The most important ingredient in direct mail success is targeting. Sending the right offers to the right prospects.

DM Metrics can help. We're not a list provider. We are list-agnostic. So we can make sure you get the highest response list available. And we know how to put together great targeting criteria.

With 25+ years of experience managing direct mail efforts for lenders like
  • Springleaf,
  • Wells Fargo and
  • Household Finance
our direct mail expert can steer you to the best list sources and provide the best selection criteria and response tools, so you get higher response and more loans for your money.

How are your prequalified mail campaigns doing? We can provide risk criteria for your prequalified offers, as well as response targeting to assure a decent cost per loan.

Should you try live check offers? Only if do it right! We can guide you through it, making sure your risk criteria matches your loan pricing and your response targeting.

How about ITA (Invitation To Apply) offers? Absolutely! Prequalified campaigns won't cover the full eligible prospect universe.

So does it matter which ITA list you use? Very much! We've tested multiple list sources and seen some pretty big differences in the data that drives response. We can steer you to the best list sources - and provide you with strong targeting tools to use for making selections.

Are you ready to become direct mail experts in subprime lending? We'll help you get there.

We can also manage your campaigns for you, if you like. We'll put together the time line and keep everyone on track, from the list provider to the mail shop.

We can also track your campaigns and provide insights into how to improve your targeting and offers. And when you have enough mail history, we can develop custom response models that will outperform any generic response model.

Get more loans from your mailing efforts. Call the experts at 
812.449.7744 

Learn More

White House Response To FiSCA's "We The People" Petition Ignores Concerns Of Consumers
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Earlier this week the White House issued a response to a petition signed by more than 105,000 people who asked the administration to oppose the short-term loan rules proposed by the CFPB. The petition was created by Financial Service Centers of America (FiSCA) within the White House's "We the People" petition portal. If enacted, the rules would make it nearly impossible for consumers to access small loans that are currently permitted by most states and relied upon by millions of Americans.

"The White House response was disappointing because it ignored the concerns expressed by the more than 100,000 customers who signed the petition," said Edward D'Alessio, Executive Director of FiSCA. Those concerns included unrealistic limitations on borrowing that don't consider their real life, day-to-day needs; the creation of a federal database that will track their personal finances and dictate when they are allowed to get a loan; and denial of their financial future. These consumers objected to the fact that they are being singled out, and that the rules will apply only to those that use small loan products like payday loans. No other group of borrowers is being treated this way. Instead of responding to these concerns, the White House provided a regurgitated political message focused on "business models" and a financial crisis that had nothing to do with small loans or the Americans who use them.

The White House response was, however, encouraging in its report that the CFPB is conducting a "thorough analysis" of this issue and that the determination of whether to move forward with these rules is the CFPB's, "if they do move forward." "We feel this may reflect the recognition that additional research is necessary before promulgating rules, a view recently advanced by a researcher from the New York Federal Reserve," D'Alessio said. "We also urge the CFPB to look more closely at the products available under state law, which provide an appropriate balance between consumer protection and access to credit, and allow consumers to make their own financial decisions." Read the press release from FISCA
Prepay Nation
Reform Efforts Stall As Virginia Title Lenders Promise To Clean Up Their Ways
As members of the Virginia state Senate prepared to crack down on an industry many say is predatory, two of the state's car-title lenders are promising to stop using a loophole in the law that allows them to charge unlimited interest and drag out loans for more than a year. Members of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee say that's good enough for them, killing several efforts that would have set new limits on how much interest could be charged and increased reporting requirements to regulators.
"Let's take the industry at their word," says Sen. Frank Wagner (R-7). "And if they are not doing what they are complying to do, I can assure you I'm going to support it and the bill will move forward."
The deal was struck by Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-35), who has been one of the industry's chief defenders in Richmond. Advocates for reform were hopeful that this year might be different because Saslaw was behind an effort to prohibit car-title lenders from offering lending products that are not car-title loans. But as it turns out, Saslaw struck a deal behind-closed doors in which two of the industry leaders promised to stop offering consumer finance loans.
"If any one of these different shops from a different company pops up in the next year, then when we come back here then I'm going to move forward," says Saslaw, who has received about $250,000 from the industry in the last decade. "But I'll take them at their word. But they've got to police their own industry." Read more at WAMU.ORG
Opportunity Tax Service
Financial Industry Attempting to Muzzle its Consumer Watchdog Agency in Court
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been under fire.
In the debris following the financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010, consolidating consumer protection into one agency from a byzantine system of 10 organizations ostensibly sharing the load.
The format of this agency took a different shape than other watchdog agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission. Instead of a committee, the agency's power is centralized on a single director, appointed by the president for a five-year term. This is supposed to promote swift action instead of bureaucratic stagnation, and it has. In the wake of its 10 predecessors long nap at the wheel, which caused the financial crisis, the bureau has fielded almost 800,000 complaints and collected $11 billion in restitution for consumers.
But while supporters see the bureau's executive power as a feature, pointing to the bureau's ability to apply corrective force against financial malfeasance in a manner much more efficient than the SEC, its conservative detractors lament so its director's concentrated power. Read more at TIME
FactorTrust
The Financial Institution Customer Protection Act of 2015 (H.R.766), introduced by Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO-3), has been scheduled to receive a vote next week on the floor of the House of Representatives. 
H.R. 766 will first go to the Rules Committee, early next week where they will design a rule for the consideration of the bill. This is an exciting next step in putting yet one more stake in Operation Choke Point.
"To provide requirements for the appropriate Federal banking agencies when requesting or ordering a depository institution to terminate a specific customer account, to provide for additional requirements related to subpoenas issued under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, and for other purposes." Read H.R.766
CFSA Conference

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