Monica Burks ‌

Monica Burks

Policy Counsel

Monica Burks serves as policy counsel on CRL’s state policy team. Based in the Durham office, she works with local organizations and lawmakers to end abusive lending practices in their states. She graduated from NC State with a degree in creative writing. Monica attended Carolina Law, focusing her legal scholarship on banking law and housing rights. Prior to entering academia, Monica worked as a credit union loan officer and administrator for four years. After graduating from law school in 2018, she worked as a law clerk for the North Carolina Supreme Court. Prior to joining CRL, Monica was a commercial real estate attorney.

Research & Policy

State-by-State Action on Payday Loan Apps

State-by-State Action on Payday Loan Apps

Payday loan app companies try to evade state credit laws by promoting a legal fiction: they claim that these loans are not loans. As state regulators and attorneys general investigate and challenge industry violations of credit law, these lenders have lobbied state legislatures for exemptions from those laws. This state law chart serves as a shorthand guide to state regulation...
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Policy & Legislation
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Paying to be Paid: Consumer Protections Needed for Earned Wage Advances and Other Fintech Cash Advances

Paying to be Paid: Consumer Protections Needed for Earned Wage Advances and Other Fintech Cash Advances

Among the hottest consumer finance topics in recent years is the proliferation of online lenders offering fintech cash advances, including the subset of those lenders who offer earned wage advances (EWA). These are very short-term loans of small dollar amounts that users can access through a smartphone app. Lenders that offer these products strenuously attempt to avoid being regulated like...
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Research
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans