On January 2, a group of Democratic Senators sent a letter to the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, and the OCC seeking action to stop banks from making payday loans. The letter cites the agencies’ “long history of appropriately prohibiting . . . banks from partnering with non-bank payday lenders,” but claims that several banks are currently making payday loans directly to their customers. The products at issue are actually deposit advance loans, which the Senators claim are structured the same as traditional payday loans and put customers in a cycle of debt. The Senators call on the regulators to take “meaningful regulatory action” in response to the problem as they present it, but stop short of identifying specific banks or outlining potential federal legislation.
