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A GOP-led measure would have forced the Defense Department to do more study before finalizing regulations on high-cost loans to service members. It was quashed when five Republicans voted with Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee.
April 30 -
Financial industry groups are supporting the effort to stop the Pentagon from issuing new regulations on high-cost lending this year, while congressional Democrats and consumer groups are decrying it.
April 29 -
Banks, credit unions, payday lenders and installment lenders are likely to feel the impact of restrictions on loans to members of the military that the Defense Department has proposed.
September 26
The Obama administration on Tuesday finalized new regulations designed to crack down on high-cost loans to members of the military.
The rules are meant to make it harder for lenders to get around an eight-year-old interest rate cap on loans to active-duty service members. Under the earlier rules, installment loans of 92 days or more and auto title loans of 182 days or more were exempt, and many high-cost lenders continued operating outside the gates of military bases across the nation.
Details of the Pentagon's new rules were not immediately available on Tuesday. A White House fact sheet stated that the rules are being broadened to cover all payday loans, auto title loans, installment loans, refund anticipation loans, deposit advance loans and credit cards.
The White House also said that charges for most so-called add-on products, including credit default insurance, will be counted toward the interest rate cap.
A Defense Department proposal from last fall also included a requirement that lenders check a database in an effort to determine whether a loan applicant is a member of the military. That idea drew objections from various financial industry trade groups, and the White House fact sheet Tuesday did not mention it.
Details of the Pentagon's new rules were not immediately available on Tuesday. Proposed revisions
The Defense Department's proposal from last fall also required lenders to check a database in an effort to determine whether a loan applicant is a member of the military. That idea drew objections from various financial industry trade groups.
In April, a group of House Republicans tried to force the Pentagon to delay its new regulations. But that effort fizzled when five Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee joined Democrats in opposing a measure that sought to require the Pentagon to study the issue further.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a longtime champion of stricter lending rules for active-duty service members, hailed the new rules Tuesday.
"This is a significant win for our troops and their families," Reed, D-R.I., said in a press release. "Predatory lending is a threat to military readiness and therefore our national security, and frankly these commonsense protections are long overdue."
Later Tuesday, President Obama was expected to tout the new rules in a speech in Pittsburgh marking the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act.
