Ahead of today’s House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) hearing titled, “Rent-A-Bank Schemes and New Debt Traps: Assessing Efforts to Evade State Consumer Protections and Interest Rate Caps,” OLA CEO Mary Jackson issued the following statement:
“Partnerships between banks and fintech companies are not only legal and already regulated, but also are a positive step forward for consumers who need credit access but are otherwise considered too risky for traditional lenders. Through these partnerships, banks benefit from the technology that fintech companies have spent decades developing and refining. In so doing, banks and fintechs working together can continue providing innovative financial products that banks alone are otherwise unable to offer.
This creates more competition in the marketplace, which drives down prices and establishes a diversity of financial products available to consumers. For these reasons, the House Financial Services Committee should be promoting bank-fintech partnerships as a way to provide better services to more consumers at a lower cost — not trying to regulate them out of the marketplace.”
