The well documented failures of Silicon Valley and Signature Banks have raised fundamental questions about the role of federal regulators, the importance of regional vs. national banks, as well as the overall state of the U.S. economy.
Questions about the economy were part of the discussion between members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week. When asked about the state of the U.S. banking systema and what it could mean for consumers and businesses alike, she responded: “If banks are under stress, they might be reluctant to lend. We could see credit become more expensive and less available.”
Secretary Yellen’s comments are a reminder that consumer don’t look to just banks for credit. There are millions of American consumers who do not have a bank account. Millions more do not qualify for bank loans due to less than stellar credit. These consumers typically look to finance companies for their credit needs.
But regardless of what type of credit consumers access, higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve increase costs for lenders. Lenders respond to higher costs in different ways, including lowering the lending risks by tightening their lending requirements, passing those cost increases onto consumers, or reducing their expenditures with layoffs.
The current financial churn is also a reminder that other policies can further limit access to credit, such as caps on annual percentage rates. This all contributes to an economic environment that harms the types of consumers who may need a loan the most: the non-bank-account-holding consumers with a few dings on their credit reports, who probably will never need a bailout, but would most likely appreciate knowing they have access to an affordable form of credit an emergency expense pops up.
The well documented failures of Silicon Valley and Signature Banks have raised fundamental questions about the role of federal regulators, the importance of regional vs. national banks, as well as the overall state of the U.S. economy.
Questions… Read the rest
The Featured Business Partner for the month of March is defi SOLUTIONS.
defi SOLUTIONS partners with banks, credit unions, captives, and finance companies of all types and sizes to help lenders transform their operations. defi provides … Read the rest
For Black History Month AFSA is celebrating the efforts and accomplishments of AFSA member company colleagues working in the consumer credit and financial services industries.

Danielle McLean
Vice President & Chief Financial… Read the rest
For Black History Month AFSA is celebrating the efforts and accomplishments of AFSA member company colleagues working in the consumer credit and financial services industries.

Shunda Robinson
Senior Vice President,
GM Financial… Read the rest
For Black History Month AFSA is celebrating the efforts and accomplishments of AFSA member company colleagues working in the consumer credit and financial services industries.

Virnitia Hendricks
Executive Vice President, Chief… Read the rest
For Black History Month, AFSA seeks to celebrate the efforts and accomplishments of AFSA member company colleagues working in the consumer credit and financial services industries.

Marc Womack
Executive Vice President, Head of … Read the rest
Today, the CFPB released a blog post entitled, Examining the potential impact of high vehicle costs on Americans with deep subprime credit scores. The report concluded, “It seems likely that many deep subprime consumers have been priced … Read the rest
The Better Business Bureau, International (BBB) has released a report on predatory payday and cash-advance lenders and debt collection scams. The report generally raises three issues. First, the BBB says its “scam tracker” identified … Read the rest
The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is out with a new report that is a lot like its other reports on consumer credit and predatory lenders. But this time, there’s a twist.
Rather than focusing on the unhelpful fallout of state-based interest-rate… Read the rest
This week, CEOs from some of the largest U.S. banks provided testimony before the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees regarding several issues, including a proposal from Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) to expand the Military… Read the rest
Notice: Undefined variable: blog_query in /nas/content/live/afsastaging/wp-content/themes/afsa_new/index.php on line 82
Notice: Trying to get property 'max_num_pages' of non-object in /nas/content/live/afsastaging/wp-content/themes/afsa_new/index.php on line 82
Notice: Undefined variable: wp_query in /nas/content/live/afsastaging/wp-content/themes/afsa_new/index.php on line 30
Notice: Trying to get property 'max_num_pages' of non-object in /nas/content/live/afsastaging/wp-content/themes/afsa_new/index.php on line 30