As countries, companies, and consumers continue reacting to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Online Lenders Alliance CEO Mary Jackson issued the following statement:
“The Online Lenders Alliance (OLA) continues to monitor the spread of COVID-19 and urge its members to work with consumers by providing them with flexibility, allowing them to defer or skip payments, and delaying sending delinquency notices or negative credit reports to credit bureaus. We’ve also recommended extending payment terms, restructuring existing loans, or easing terms for new loans when possible.
With many Americans facing stress or strained income due to work reductions or illness, it is important that they have options when seeking legal, regulated, and safe forms of credit. Many of these consumers are already excluded from many financial services offerings due to non-prime credit scores. Efforts to cap interest rates on short-term, small-dollar credit options would only eliminate financial products at a time when these options are more important than ever.
Our organization will continue working to protect these products and the consumers who use them by enforcing OLA’s best practices, using the OLA seal as a way to let consumers know they are working with a trustworthy company, and working to eliminate fraudsters from the marketplace. Our members are working with us on these initiatives as well as following the interagency guidance on loan modification released last night.
Our thoughts are with everyone who has become ill from the COVID-19 virus as well as those who are facing economic hardship as a result of virus-related measures.”
