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Short term financing agencies may face increased regulations to further protect consumers, increase brand reliability

Jan 30, 2012 Philip Burgess

While the short term loan business is simple on paper, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may soon mandate increased restrictions to tailor the consumer and encourage fair practice throughout the United States. As a short term financing firm, your goal is to give the consumer the funds necessary to make payments until their next paycheck, but many times borrowers are unable to follow through with their debt to you. Often times, this may be the fault of the provider overlooking the financial limitations of the consumer. While it should be within the average consumer to understand their own limitations, the recent economic struggles may have caused individuals to overlook their limits and apply for loans they realistically can't handle. In addition, President Barack Obama said in the State of the Union Address that short term lenders and mortgage lenders should no longer offer services that consumers can't immediately afford. "Fundamentally, I believe regulation is coming," FBR Capital Markets analyst Edward Mills told Scripps News. "The CFPB [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] has clearly demonstrated that they mean business. They want to show they are doing things that are meaningful to the average consumer. I think they consider reforms to short term loans low-hanging fruit."