More Protections Against Lenders Offered

The White House and Pentagon are moving forward with proposed regulations that would prevent predatory lenders from preying upon service members and their families. The key provision would add new punch to the 2006 Military Lending Act, which caps at 36 percent the amount of interest service members can be charged and bars creditors from forcing service members to submit to arbitration to resolve credit disputes. The proposed changes would make the Military Lending Act apply to payday, vehicle-title, refund-anticipation, deposit-advance, and installment loans. The law also would apply to unsecured open-end lines of credit and credit cards. Creditors would have to disclose more information relating to loans as well. Full details were published in Sept. 29 issues of the Federal Register.