With over 3,000 registered payday loan businesses and an overall population of 25 million people, Texas represents one of the most prolific markets for payday lenders in the industry.

Not only that, but there are many large metropolitan clusters in Texas surrounding the large cities Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.  There’s a saying in Texas that when the weather is hot, there’s nothing else to do but shop and eat. A typical street corner in Dallas has at least two banks and two fast food restaurants, so consumers are invited to get money and spend money just about every waking moment. Texas highways and byways are set up to prime the capitalistic consumer engine and breed success in the retail business. Intercity freeways are gigantic advertising corridors for anyone who wants to hang out their shingle, making this market a hotbed for business owners.

One such business that has been the beneficiary of that formula is the payday loan industry.  What formerly was a little known product based in check cashing stores or pawn shops, has grown into a professional, regulated, and mainstream industry.  In 2010, it was at $40 billion.

With all the instability in traditional cornerstone investments like the stock market and real estate, many investors have taken a look at the payday loan industry as an option.  The industry is tuned to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the cash strapped, credit challenged consumer.  Payday loan businesses were built by adapting to many of the problems that Wall Street cannot.

Are you looking for something new?  Are you growing weary of the daily picture that CNN shows you of the beleaguered NYSE trader looking down at his desk after yet another hard plummet of the market?

Consider becoming a lender in the Texas payday loan business.  Reach out to C.A.B. Consulting and Brokerage if you would like to look into it.  We would be happy to tell you what we know and connect you with businesses looking for people such as yourself with money to invest.

Contact C.A.B. Consulting and Brokerage at cabconbrokerage@gmail.com or call us at 214.293.8676.

Many of you know there have been some recent ACH payment processor problems that have developed in our industry. In particular, online operators are being hit the hardest. I had (2) clients check in with me this morning regarding the shutdown of their ACH capabilities.

I was surprised to see them shutdown, as clients of CAB Consulting are licensed businesses. It has been my understanding that only unlicensed and unregulated online payday loan companies were the targets of these shutdowns, not compliant and legal licensed operators. It appears ACH companies are having a knee-jerk response and are suspending services first, then asking questions later.

If you have been impacted by this, there are some options in the market that I can tell you about. Also, check in with your ACH provider to to make sure you are informed about where things are now, and to avoid being blindsided.

Contact Michael Brown at CAB Consulting, 214-293-8676, or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.

New bill: HB 877, from Chris Turner (Democrat out of Tarrant County, Represents Grand Prairie & portions of Arlington).

Caption: Relating to prohibiting certain telemarketing calls by a credit access business.
A credit access business or a representative of a credit access business may not make a telemarketing call, as defined by Section 304.002, Business & Commerce Code, to a consumer whose name and telephone number are on the Texas no-call list maintained under Subchapter B, Chapter 304, Business & Commerce Code.

The full text of the proposed bill mentions that you would be able to contact consumers with whom you have had done business with in the past, so long as it has not been more than 1 year since the last transaction.

Comments:  Our clients and Members to not typically “telemarket” or use outside telemarketing firms.  We are not aware of many CABs who do this but would be interested to see how “telemarketing” is defined.  Stands to reason that if someone has asked not to be telemarketed to that they are not telemarketed to.  Not sure why it is worth the effort to put this bill out.

Link: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/Search/DocViewer.aspx?ID=85RHB008771B&QueryText=%22credit+access%22&DocType=B

This blog post was written by Michael Brown, President of CAB Consulting and the Texas Organization of Financial Service Centers.  He can be reached at 214-293-8676, or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.

We have been hearing a lot lately about the continued decline of retail business in the US.  Zales and Jared jewelry retail stores are the latest to announce closures of hundreds of locations.

Online is booming and it seems like Amazon rules the world.  If your business does not have an online presence you are missing out on a lot of opportunity because your pure brick & mortar market is shrinking by the minute.  Consumers are evolving and many low to middle income consumers are willing to do more and more to get access to credit at crucial times.  How will you engage with this new dynamic?

Forbes.com featured an article that discusses how increased online markets are opening a consumer’s willingness to share their personal info online while also touting the strengths of today’s alternative data.  I included some excerpts below.

“People Are Plenty Willing To Share Personal Data To Get A Better Loan.”

• New research suggests that people are surprisingly comfortable sharing their data as long as it’s being put to good use, especially in the world of lending.
• A recent Harris Poll found a surprising consensus among American adults — 71% of those surveyed said they would be willing to share more personal data with a lender if it led to a fairer loan decision.
• More significantly, the Harris Poll shows that the majority of consumers feel unfairly treated by the current system.  More than 80% of African-Americans and Hispanics – and 7 in 10 of all adults – say they wish there were a better way to prove themselves to lenders.
• But in today’s era of large-scale data collection and unlimited computing power, the traditional credit score is showing signs of age and mathematical limitations.
• Consider some of the things credit scoring excludes: your job history, your roots in your town and thousands of other bits of information that are left untapped. It’s no wonder 70% of people polled say it’s difficult to get financial institutions to see them as anything but a number between 300 and 850.
• One-third of renters say credit scores have kept them from buying a home.   
• Alternative data simply means anything that’s not included in calculating a traditional credit score. It could include timely utility payments, history of holding down a job, even large debts you had years ago (outside of the traditional credit score models) that you successful paid off.
• Bringing that added data into the credit scoring decision creates a more nuanced picture of borrower risk, helping banks spot worthy borrowers further down the credit spectrum (and flagging troublesome borrowers who look good on paper).
•  The Omidyar Foundation found that in the six biggest emerging economies, using more data and machine learning techniques can get as many as 580 million unbanked people into the financial mainstream.”

Many of us are using “alternative data” with Factor Trust and Microbilt (often referred to as “Credit Reporting Agencies” or “CRA’s”).  If you are not, get on it as soon as possible!  

Factor Trust was recently acquired by Trans Union, and another CRA “Clarity Services” was acquired by Experian awhile back. In the future hopefully that will mean better things for how CRA’s are utilized by our industry and will also mean more robust access to credit for consumers.”

This blog post was written by Michael Brown, President of CAB Consulting and the Texas Organization of Financial Service Centers.  He can be reached at 214-293-8676, or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.

New Technical Rules for 2017 you should be aware of.  Did you know there are new rules related to the application for new licenses, transferring a license, and criminal history of CAB owners?  Much of this was covered during CAB Consulting’s “CAB II” project that many clients and members took advantage of. 

*The language for rules and transfers removes the part mentioning that you need to wait on the OCCC’s approval to operate a CAB while the license is being transferred. The transformer assumes all responsibility of the license until the license has been transferred to the transferee. 

**Criminal History can affect license holders. This affects anyone with a State license from a concealed handgun license to a Credit Access Business license. In the eyes of Texas, it is a privilege to maintain a Texas license, and therefore license holders must be law abiding residents.  

Here are several areas of infraction that could compromise your CAB: 

Theft, assault, any offense that involves misrepresentation, deceptive practices or making false or misleading statements. 

Any offense that involves breach of trust or other fiduciary duty.

Any criminal violation of a statute governing credit transactions or debt collection. 

Failure to file a government report, filing a false report or tampering with a government record. 

Here is a link to the rules: http://occc.texas.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/pub/rules/cab-adoption-fc-010517.pdf 

This blog post was written by Michael Brown, President of CAB Consulting and the Texas Organization of Financial Service Centers.  He can be reached at 214-293-8676, or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.