II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 780
To amend the Truth in Lending Act to address certain issues relating to
the extension of consumer credit, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. M
ERKLEY(for himself, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. VANHOLLEN,
Mr. D
URBIN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Ms. SMITH, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. BOOKER,
and Ms. B
ALDWIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice
and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To amend the Truth in Lending Act to address certain
issues relating to the extension of consumer credit, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stopping Abuse and 4
Fraud in Electronic Lending Act of 2025’’ or the ‘‘SAFE 5
Lending Act of 2025’’. 6
SEC. 2. CONSUMER CONTROL OVER BANK ACCOUNTS. 7
(a) P
ROHIBITINGUNAUTHORIZED REMOTELYCRE-8
ATEDCHECKS.—Section 905 of the Electronic Fund 9
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Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693c) is amended by adding at 1
the end the following: 2
‘‘(d) L
IMITATIONS ON REMOTELY CREATED 3
C
HECKS.— 4
‘‘(1) D
EFINITION.—In this subsection— 5
‘‘(A) the term ‘Federal consumer financial 6
law’ has the meaning given the term in section 7
1002 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act 8
of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 5481); and 9
‘‘(B) the term ‘remotely created check’ 10
means a check, including a paper or electronic 11
check and any other payment order that the 12
Bureau, by rule, determines is appropriately 13
covered under this subsection, that— 14
‘‘(i) is not created by the financial in-15
stitution that holds the customer account 16
from which the check is to be paid; and 17
‘‘(ii) does not bear a signature ap-18
plied, or purported to be applied, by the 19
person from whose account the check is to 20
be paid. 21
‘‘(2) L
IMITATIONS.—Subject to the limitations 22
in paragraph (3) and any additional limitations that 23
the Bureau may establish, by rule, a remotely cre-24
ated check may only be issued by a person des-25
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ignated in writing by a consumer, with that written 1
designation specifically provided by the consumer to 2
the insured depository institution at which the con-3
sumer maintains the account from which the check 4
is to be drawn. 5
‘‘(3) A
DDITIONAL LIMITATIONS.— 6
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A designation pro-7
vided by a consumer under paragraph (2) may 8
be revoked at any time by the consumer. 9
‘‘(B) C
ONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION 10
LAWS.—No payment order, including a re-11
motely created check, may be issued by any per-12
son in response to the exercise of, or attempt to 13
exercise, any right by a consumer under— 14
‘‘(i) any Federal consumer financial 15
law; or 16
‘‘(ii) any other provision of any law or 17
regulation within the jurisdiction of the 18
Bureau.’’. 19
(b) C
ONSUMERPROTECTIONS FOR CERTAINONE- 20
T
IMEELECTRONICFUNDTRANSFERS.—Section 913 of 21
the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693k) is 22
amended— 23
(1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 24
inserting ‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—’’ before ‘‘No person’’; 25
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(2) in subsection (a)(1), as so designated, by 1
striking ‘‘preauthorized electronic fund transfers’’ 2
and inserting ‘‘an electronic fund transfer’’; and 3
(3) by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(b) T
REATMENT FOR ELECTRONICFUNDTRANS-5
FERS INCREDITEXTENSIONS.—If a consumer voluntarily 6
agrees to repay an extension of a small-dollar consumer 7
credit transaction, as defined in section 110(a) of the 8
Truth in Lending Act, by means of an electronic fund 9
transfer, the electronic fund transfer shall be treated as 10
a preauthorized electronic fund transfer subject to the pro-11
tections of this title.’’. 12
SEC. 3. TRANSPARENCY AND CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT 13
IN SMALL-DOLLAR LENDING. 14
(a) S
MALL-DOLLARCONSUMER CREDITTRANS-15
ACTIONS.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Truth in Lending Act 17
(15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is amended— 18
(A) by inserting after section 109 (15 19
U.S.C. 1608) the following: 20
‘‘SEC. 110. REGISTRATION REQUIREMENT FOR SMALL-DOL-21
LAR LENDERS. 22
‘‘(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘small- 23
dollar consumer credit transaction’— 24
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‘‘(1) means any transaction that extends credit 1
that is— 2
‘‘(A) made to a consumer in an amount 3
that is not more than— 4
‘‘(i) $5,000; or 5
‘‘(ii) such greater amount as the Bu-6
reau may, by rule, determine to reflect 7
changes in the Consumer Price Index for 8
all urban consumers published by the De-9
partment of Labor; and 10
‘‘(B) extended pursuant to an agreement 11
that is— 12
‘‘(i)(I) other than an open end credit 13
plan; and 14
‘‘(II) payable in 1 or more install-15
ments of less than 12 months; 16
‘‘(ii) an open end credit plan in which 17
each advance is fully repayable within a 18
defined time or in connection with a de-19
fined event, or both; or 20
‘‘(iii) any other plan as the Bureau 21
determines, by rule; and 22
‘‘(2) includes any action that facilitates, bro-23
kers, arranges, or gathers applications for a trans-24
action described in paragraph (1). 25
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‘‘(b) REGISTRATIONREQUIREMENT.—A person shall 1
register with the Bureau before issuing credit in a small- 2
dollar consumer credit transaction.’’; and 3
(B) in section 173 (15 U.S.C. 1666j), by 4
adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, 6
any small-dollar consumer credit transaction, as defined 7
in section 110(a), shall comply with the laws of the State 8
in which the consumer to which credit in the transaction 9
is extended resides with respect to annual percentage 10
rates, interest, fees, charges, and such other similar or re-11
lated matters as the Bureau may, by rule, determine if 12
the small-dollar consumer credit transaction is— 13
‘‘(1) made— 14
‘‘(A) over the internet; 15
‘‘(B) by telephone; 16
‘‘(C) by facsimile; 17
‘‘(D) by mail; 18
‘‘(E) by electronic mail; or 19
‘‘(F) through another electronic commu-20
nication; or 21
‘‘(2) conducted by a national bank.’’. 22
(2) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND -23
MENT.—The table of sections for chapter 1 of the 24
Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is 25
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amended by inserting after the item relating to sec-1
tion 109 the following: 2
‘‘110. Registration requirement for small-dollar lenders.’’.
(b) PROHIBITION ONCERTAINFEES.—Section 915 3
of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693l– 4
1) is amended— 5
(1) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-6
section (e); and 7
(2) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-8
lowing: 9
‘‘(d) A
DDITIONALFEESPROHIBITED.— 10
‘‘(1) D
EFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 11
‘prepaid account’ has the meaning given the term in 12
section 1005.2 of title 12, Code of Federal Regula-13
tions, or any successor regulation. 14
‘‘(2) P
ROHIBITION.—With respect to the use of 15
a prepaid account by a consumer— 16
‘‘(A) it shall be unlawful for any person to 17
charge the consumer a fee for an overdraft with 18
respect to the prepaid account; 19
‘‘(B) any transaction for an amount that 20
exceeds the account balance of the prepaid ac-21
count may be declined by the financial institu-22
tion holding the prepaid account; and 23
‘‘(C) the Bureau may, by rule, prohibit any 24
person from charging a fee with respect to the 25
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prepaid account (other than a fee described in 1
subparagraph (A)) so that the Bureau may— 2
‘‘(i) prevent unfair, deceptive, or abu-3
sive practices; and 4
‘‘(ii) promote the ability of the con-5
sumer to understand and compare the 6
costs of prepaid accounts.’’. 7
SEC. 4. RESTRICTIONS ON LEAD GENERATION IN SMALL- 8
DOLLAR CONSUMER CREDIT TRANSACTIONS. 9
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 2 of the Truth in Lend-10
ing Act (15 U.S.C. 1631 et seq.) is amended by adding 11
at the end the following: 12
‘‘SEC. 140B. RESTRICTIONS ON LEAD GENERATION IN 13
SMALL-DOLLAR CONSUMER CREDIT TRANS-14
ACTIONS. 15
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 16
‘‘(1) the terms ‘Internet access service’ and 17
‘Internet information location tool’ have the mean-18
ings given those terms in section 231(e) of the Com-19
munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 231(e)); 20
‘‘(2) the term ‘sensitive personal financial infor-21
mation’ means a social security number, financial 22
account number, bank routing number, bank ac-23
count number, or security or access code that is im-24
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mediately necessary to permit access to the financial 1
account of an individual; and 2
‘‘(3) the term ‘small-dollar consumer credit 3
transaction’ has the meaning given the term in sec-4
tion 110(a). 5
‘‘(b) I
DENTIFICATIONINFORMATION.—Any person 6
facilitating, brokering, arranging for, or gathering applica-7
tions for the distribution of sensitive personal financial in-8
formation in connection with a small-dollar consumer 9
credit transaction shall prominently disclose information 10
by which the person may be contacted or identified, includ-11
ing for service of process and for identification of the reg-12
istrant of any domain name registered or used. 13
‘‘(c) P
ROHIBITION ONLEADGENERATION INSMALL- 14
D
OLLARCONSUMERCREDITTRANSACTIONS.—No person 15
may facilitate, broker, arrange for, or gather applications 16
for the distribution of sensitive personal financial informa-17
tion in connection with a small-dollar consumer credit 18
transaction unless the person is directly providing the 19
small-dollar consumer credit to a consumer. 20
‘‘(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Nothing in this section 22
may be construed to limit the authority of the Bu-23
reau to further restrict activities covered by this sec-24
tion. 25
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‘‘(2) CLARIFICATION.—For the purposes of this 1
section, it shall not be considered facilitating, 2
brokering, arranging for, or gathering applications 3
for the distribution of sensitive personal financial in-4
formation in connection with a small-dollar con-5
sumer credit transaction to be engaged solely in one 6
of the following activities: 7
‘‘(A) The provision of a telecommuni-8
cations service, an Internet access service, or an 9
Internet information location tool. 10
‘‘(B) The transmission, storage, retrieval, 11
hosting, formatting, or translation (or any com-12
bination thereof) of a communication, without 13
selection or alteration of the content of the 14
communication, except the deletion of a par-15
ticular communication or material made by an-16
other person in a manner that is consistent 17
with section 230(c) of the Communications Act 18
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)).’’. 19
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 20
The table of sections for chapter 2 of the Truth in Lend-21
ing Act (15 U.S.C. 1631 et seq.) is amended by adding 22
at the end the following: 23
‘‘140B. Restrictions on lead generation in small-dollar consumer credit trans-
actions.’’.
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SEC. 5. STUDIES. 1
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 2
(1) the term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-3
gress’’ means— 4
(A) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 5
and Urban Affairs of the Senate; 6
(B) the Committee on Indian Affairs of the 7
Senate; 8
(C) the Committee on Financial Services of 9
the House of Representatives; and 10
(D) the Committee on Natural Resources 11
of the House of Representatives; and 12
(2) the term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ has the meaning 13
given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self-Deter-14
mination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 15
5304). 16
(b) S
TUDYREQUIRED.—Not later than 180 days 17
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller 18
General of the United States shall conduct a study regard-19
ing— 20
(1) the availability of capital on reservations of 21
Indian Tribes; and 22
(2) the impact that small-dollar consumer credit 23
extended through internet and non-internet means 24
to members of Indian Tribes has had on economic 25
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opportunity and wealth for members of Indian 1
Tribes. 2
(c) C
ONSULTATION.—In conducting the study re-3
quired under subsection (b), the Comptroller General of 4
the United States shall consult, as appropriate, with— 5
(1) the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protec-6
tion; 7
(2) the Board of Governors of the Federal Re-8
serve System; 9
(3) the Director of the Bureau of Indian Af-10
fairs; 11
(4) federally recognized Indian Tribes; and 12
(5) community development financial institu-13
tions operating in Indian lands. 14
(d) C
ONGRESSIONALCONSIDERATION.—The Comp-15
troller General of the United States shall submit to the 16
appropriate committees of Congress the study required 17
under subsection (b). 18
SEC. 6. RULEMAKING. 19
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 20
of this Act, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection 21
shall adopt any final rules that are necessary to implement 22
the provisions of this Act and the amendments made by 23
this Act. 24
Æ
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