TALLAHASSEE, Fla.–Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has vetoed a bill that would have increased interest rates on large personal loans made to Florida residents, a move that has gotten support from Self-Help Credit Union and the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).
Self-Help and CRL said they were joined by advocates from consumer groups, faith groups, legal services and others in their calls to reject the bill, which would have raised allowable interest rates on installment loans up to $25,000.
“This bill would have raised interest on large loans to an absurd level, allowing high-cost lenders to take more money out of the pockets of hardworking Floridians at a time when every penny counts,” said Adelcio Lugo, Self-Help’s Florida president. “Low-wealth Florida families are already targeted by predatory lenders who extract fees through exploitative practices. We congratulate the wide array of community groups who came together to defeat this bill. We celebrate this step toward stronger consumer protections and we will continue to support efforts to end predatory lending once and for all in our state.”
Would Have Moved State ‘Backwards’
Added Jared Pone, policy counsel for Center for Responsible Lending, “Raising the interest rate limit on large loans would have moved Florida backwards and saddled working families with additional high-cost debt. We found that the lenders leading the push for this change have made a practice of slipping in unnecessary add-on products that primarily benefit the lender, increasing the amount owed and keeping borrowers indebted for years.”
North Carolina-based Self-Help Credit Union, a CDFI that has eight branches in Florida, said it is “committed to providing greater access to fair, affordable financing options for underserved communities, including women, low-wealth families, immigrants and communities of color.”
You Can Now Get CUToday.info’s Daily News Headlines in Your Mailbox at the Low, Low Price of Free
Are you missing out on the latest news in credit unions? Missing the trends and developments you need to be aware of? We can help. Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more.
And it’s free!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.