【英语国际】巨变席卷美国消费信贷业

Even before Congress unveils a consumer-protection agency, new state and federal laws are ushering in the most sweeping changes in consumer finance since the 1960s.

On July 1, Arizona will force changes on the state's 595 payday-loan stores -- outfits that make high-interest loans against future paychecks -- that could effectively put them out of business. Wisconsin banned small loans backed by car titles that led many people to lose their vehicles. Arkansas, Maine and New York joined other states in putting curbs on tax preparers who offer costly loans against expected tax refunds.

The federal government, meanwhile, is for the first time requiring that lenders verify a borrower's income and assets before issuing a home loan. It has also slapped broad new rules on credit-card issuers, limiting their ability to boost interest rates and charge certain fees.

'It's a pace of regulatory output we've never seen before in the consumer area,' says Richard Hackett, who teaches consumer-finance law at Boston University's Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law.

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while housed inside the Federal Reserve, would be fully independent of the central bank, with a leader appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. It would take over most consumer-protection responsibilities that now rest with regulators across numerous federal banking agencies.

It will write and enforce rules on the structuring and marketing of loans as well as other financial products sold by banks, credit unions, credit-card issuers and even neighborhood check-cashing outfits.

But states, in most cases, would retain the power to write laws that are more restrictive than any new federal ones. In the case of payday lending, for instance, states could maintain limits on the number of consecutive loans a borrower is allowed.

The proposed agency has drawn sharp criticism over the past year, including a campaign by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups to kill it.


The new wave of consumer-finance regulation reflects a shift among policy makers aiming to shield consumers from another economic crisis. Back in the 1960s, consumer advocates called for greater disclosure to borrowers, leading to so-called truth-in-lending laws. That set of rules is now giving way to outright bans on many longstanding industry practices.

即便美国国会计划要成立的一个消费者保护机构尚未浮出水面，新的联邦及州立法正在对消费信贷业产生自上世纪60年代以来最彻底的改变。

亚利桑那州将在7月1日强制该州595家发薪日贷款店做出改变，可能实际上导致这些店破产。发薪日贷款店是以借款人未来的薪水做为抵押进行高息贷款的机构。威斯康辛州禁止了以汽车为抵押品的小额贷款，这曾使许多人失去了汽车。阿肯色州、缅因州及纽约与其它州一起，对以预计退税为抵押提供高息贷款的报税人员进行限制。

与此同时，联邦政府首次要求放贷方在发放家庭贷款前就借款人的收入及资产进行核实，还针对信用卡发行商推出适用广泛的新规则，限制其提高利率及收取某些费用的能力。

在波士顿大学(Boston University)莫林金融法研究中心(Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law)教授消费信贷法的哈克特(Richard Hackett)说，消费领域监管法规这一出台速度从未有过。

计划新建的消费者金融保护局(Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)尽管在美联储(Federal Reserve)体系内，但将可能完全独立于美联储，金融保护局的负责人由总统任命，并由参院院批准。该机构将接管大多数目前由众多联邦金融机构承担的消费者权益保护职责。

该机构将制定并实施一系列针对贷款结构与推销的法规，银行、信贷互助协会、信用卡发行商甚至社区支票兑现机构出卖的其它金融产品也包括在内。

但多数情况下，各州仍将保留制定比联邦新法更严格的法律的权力。例如，就发薪日贷款而言，各州可能保留对借款人获准取得连续贷款数量的限制权。

在过去一年中，这个计划成立的机构招致了严厉的批评，美国商会(U.S. Chamber of Commerce)及其行业团体还发起了旨在废除该机构成立的运动。

一系列消费信贷新法规的出台，反映出政策制订者正向保护消费者免于另一次经济危机转变。回溯至上世纪60年代，消费者权益保护者呼吁向借款人放宽贷款限制，导致所谓的诚实借贷法出台。如今，这套法规正在让位，许多长期实行的行业通行法则被彻底禁止。