The National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients) and the Center for Responsible Lending wrote to the CFPB to express serious concerns about two actions that the CFPB took a year ago under Director Kathy Kraninger finding that certain earned wage access (EWA) products are not “credit” under the Truth in Lending Act. These actions and the legal reasoning underlying them have the potential to open up huge loopholes in our lending and even fair lending laws.
They urge the CFPB to regulate fee-based EWA products as credit. The CFPB should rescind or significantly revise the November 2020 EWA advisory opinion (“Advisory Opinion”). The Bureau should also revoke the December 2020 Compliance Assistance Sandbox Approval (CAS) Order pertaining to certain aspects of PayActiv EWA programs (“CAS Approval Order”) or convert it into a time-limited noaction letter, and should order PayActiv to cease misrepresenting the order.