FiSCA Moves to the Nation's CapitalThe
Financial Services Centers of America, a national trade commission that represents financial service providers like
payday loan lenders, has made a strategic move to Washington D.C. after over twenty years of being headquartered in Hackensack,
New Jersey.
The move is certainly an act of self-preservation, following on the heels of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law by President Obama in July of 2010.
The law created a new federal agency, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, to oversee a still undetermined range of financial institutions and create new laws to govern financial products on behalf of consumers.
The new FiSCA headquarters is but two blocks from the BCFP. As the saying goes, out of sight is out of mind, and out of mind could spell the end for cash advance loans under new regulations.
Payday lenders have been under much scrutiny in recent years for “exorbitant” interest rates. Most states have already passed laws to ban payday lending or cap interest rates. Though payday loans are still regulated at the State level, the undefined scope of the BCFP will certainly come to include the payday loan industry.
FiSCA brass hopes the move will allow them to lobby and negotiate any upcoming regulation.
FiSCA members manage over $100 billion in transactions with over 30 million clients annually. With Bank of America and other big banks caught up in yet another scandal, small time lenders hope to take even more of the market share in the years to come by providing smaller, more accessible loans. Decision makers at the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve will determine if they even get the chance.