Payday lending

Banks can now make loans of less than $1,000 easily and profitably. Increasing their availability would benefit consumers, communities and, most of all, banks themselves.

In a surprise move, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said that it will not enforce or supervise lenders for the final payday lending rule. The bureau also plans to  narrow the scope of the rule.

After eight years of delay, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could still make last-minute changes to the payday rule, which sweeps in the buy now/pay later industry.

An appeals court ruled that online lender CashCall had waived its right to a jury trial and that its other challenges "lack merit," in a lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2013.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank are among the institutions taking advantage of regulatory tailwinds to get more aggressive.

Payday lenders want an appeals court to rehear a novel claim about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding despite a Supreme Court ruling last month that upheld the agency's funding as constitutional.

California regulators are suggesting that programs that allow workers fee-free access to their earnings between pay periods should be treated as loan products. That's wrong and short-sighted.

Chicago has one of the largest unbanked populations in the country, so United Credit Union rolled out a loan program aimed at those people who would typically use a payday lender.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a policy statement that banks risk violating the prohibition on "unfair acts and practices," by reopening a consumer's deposit account to process transactions after the account has already been closed.

OneUnited's new installment-loan product is meant to break customers out of a cycle of debt. It will compete with similar offerings from heavyweights like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Huntington.