Small-dollar lending

Just two months ago, Comptroller Joseph Otting seemed to signal that the OCC might be open to letting national banks rent their charters to payday lenders. Now he is clarifying that it won’t happen.

An OCC initiative to get more banks to make short-term loans that rival those of payday lenders isn't enough of an enticement.

While industry officials welcomed a bulletin from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency encouraging banks to develop alternatives to payday loans, they are making no commitments to offer such products.

The agency's bulletin opens the door to banks' making more short-term loans to borrowers with lower credit scores — with few parameters beyond "sound underwriting."

Regulators should revise existing rules to encourage banks to offer short-term loans to customers who run into financial emergencies.

The heads of Mastercard and Santander outlined the concrete steps their firms are taking to bring unbanked consumers into the financial system.

The congressional resolution to overturn the payday regulation comes as acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney has already said the agency will reconsider the rule internally.

The new law, which is modeled on a similar effort in the United Kingdom, aims to lure financial firms to the desert. It has drawn support from business organizations but opposition from consumer groups — a dynamic that is likely to be replayed in other states.

Just as promised, Republican lawmakers went to work Wednesday considering regulatory reform ideas that would go further than the Senate's tweaks of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The legislation, signed Monday by Gov. Rick Scott, authorizes 60- to 90-day loans of up to $1,000. It makes Florida the first state to pass a law designed to blunt the impact of the CFPB’s payday lending rule.