Sean Murray: Hello, and welcome back to deBanked TV. I'm Sean
Murray.
Johny Fernandez: And I'm Johny Fernandez, thank you guys so
much for joining us today on this Monday. Sean had did you
have a good weekend?
Sean Murray: I did. It was a little chilly. But yeah.
Sean Murray: What about yourself?
Johny Fernandez: Yeah, nice.
Johny Fernandez: Same, it's cool. It's getting cold. I'm
getting to that point of the year where some sunshine would
be nice. You know, we'll talk a little bit about where you can
get some sunshine at the end of this. I'm excited. Okay. People
may know, people may not know, I don't know. So we're excited
about that. But Sean, there's a video that I'll bring up right
now. It's regarding the Virginia Legislature and their proposal
for MCA's. Sure. Now, I'm gonna kind of backtrack a little bit.
So this is a proposal to regulate MCAs, specifically in
Virginia, the delegate that presented this to you know, the
legislature, it was a very interesting video, because in
the beginning, the person that was introducing her was like,
hey, there's this new proposal. And his exact words were, it's
fascinating to me, because I've never heard of such a thing. And
then the delegate that propose this, she went up and she spoke.
And essentially, the goal for the proposal is to require MCA
companies to register with the FCC, the term of the agreements,
she wants it to be in plain language, so that the business
owner that is accepting this MCA agreement is really going to
understand a clearer picture of what the total cost is going to
be. And transparency for business owners in regarding
like court actions, that it could take place, you know,
where the business is located versus the business owner flying
up to New York. So that's the proposal essentially, that she
presented to the legislature. Right. But the reason that she
did it was because she had, she's Vietnamese American from
what she explained. And she works a lot with the Vietnamese
American community in Northern Virginia. And she was getting a
lot of phone calls regarding business owners in Virginia,
pretty much saying like, hey, we signed up for an MCA, we don't
know what we signed up for. And now we need help. And her, you
know, the suggestion that she received from lawyers, was that
if you're a business owner, and you can't afford something like
this, don't do it. If you can, obviously go for it. But if you
can't, don't do it. That sounds like good advice. Yeah. But you
can't afford to do it. But, you know, as the video, like,
continued, it's about a 40 minute video, the legislature,
you know, everyone was asking questions, because a lot of
people did not know that MCAs exists, a lot of people wanted
to really get a full understanding of what it was,
you know, one of the guys, one of the delegates that spoke
after was saying, you know, this is something that we've never
heard of, in his 40 years of doing finance. And he kind of
associated with, like, the internet, and like, oh, like,
this is something that's coming on Facebook and, and the
internet, you know, and it just blew his mind that, like, this
is something that's really going on. Yeah. And eventually, you
know, the goal for the delegate that was proposing this in
Virginia is that she first wanted to she, she made it very
clear, she did not want to stop MCs from happening. She's like,
that's not the goal, the goal is for, for her for, you know,
Virginia to, to regulate it, but she wants to see, she wants to
gather data to see how much they need to regulate it. So it was a
very interesting approach, because she made it very clear,
she's like, we don't want to stop it. You know, they want to,
you know, they're okay with it, but they want to see, you know,
how much they need to regulate it. Because from what her
experience was business owners were just signing up. And
sometimes the interest rates were higher than like, 300%.
Like, these, like, you know, like, very hefty regulations.
And, you know, I mean, very hefty interest rates. And it got
to a point where, you know, people were just like, we can't
even pay this because we don't have the money. We can't afford
it. So that's why the proposal came up in Virginia. Yeah, this,
you know, came up towards the end of January, beginning of
February, and now they're looking, they're kind of looking
more intuitive and exploring it a little bit more. But that's
what happened in Virginia. Very, you know, obviously, regulation
is something that's going on around the like, we've been
seeing it in Maryland, in here in New York. But yeah, so that's
that was the breakdown of what happened. And that was my
takeaway. I think the one thing that fascinated me was that a
lot of people didn't know this existed. Meanwhile, you know,
businesses are like looking for this. Yeah. Because they need
it.
Sean Murray: Yeah. You mentioned the part about there being like
their estimate being like 300% interest rates. I think that
just feeds into the fact that they're still trying to figure
out what these are.
Johny Fernandez: What it is, yeah.
Sean Murray: It's not, it's not even called an MCA, an MCA bill
a proposal. It actually, it refers to sales based financing.
I did get the sense from listening to some of it that,
you know that they at least understand that these
transactions are not loans.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. And she did clarify that in the video
when she was like, again, this is not a loan.
Sean Murray: Yeah. So at least that at least that got through.
And it's, that's great because it showed that they really are
trying to at least understand that which even though it's not
new, in general, it is new to them. It does show that there is
initiative to understand that which they are trying to
regulate. Yeah. Which, which is great. But at the end of the
day, I think they're focused on the disclosure aspect, correct.
Which is what's what we're seeing all over the country?
Yeah. In all the different states, as you mentioned, it is
it is. I gotta say, it's unusual, that there are those
who feel like this is something that's brand new.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah, it was, it was interesting to see like,
honestly, the reaction there, a lot of them were just shocked
that they're like gambling, this is happening. This is, you know,
why don't they just go to banks, and something that she
clarified, the reason that she did not want to get rid of MCAs
in Virginia is because she knows that sometimes a business owner
is not able to really, you know, work with the bank, you know,
they can't get they don't have the proper tools sometimes, or
information or whatever it is that he can't go directly to a
bank. So she made it very clear. She's like, okay, if they can't
go to the bank, they're going to need other resources to start
their business, especially if they're in a blue collar area,
if they're an immigrant business owner, you know, sometimes they
can't do it like that. So they need options.
Sean Murray: Yeah. And I think what they will find, ultimately
is that everyone is essentially in favor of disclosures that
help applicants, and they will probably just try to work out.
What's the disclosure? That makes the most sense? That would
be fine. That would be my guess. Yeah. I'm not in any way, like
involved or anything.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah, we're not involved. But I think that is
true. I think something that she made it, they made it very, very
clear in this whole conversation was that the actual you know,
transaction isn't like working between business owners. MCS is
not a bad thing. The thing that she caught her attention was
that many business owners really did not understand what they
were getting themselves into. Plain and simple.
Sean Murray: Yeah, fair enough. If there's, if there's some sort
of need to make things more clear or transparent, I think
that they will find that there are those who provide this type
of capital that are all in favor of making sure all parties are,
you know, understand. Yeah, as long as it makes long. Does that
make sense? Yeah, because I know that there are states where
they're trying to apply certain types of formulas to something
that for which, you know, doesn't really fit. Yeah, but
what we'll see what happens is in Virginia, we have two videos
posted to our site, go to debanked.com/tv. There's two
videos, all we all we're doing is we're just showing a clip,
the clips that took place in the Virginia State Legislature, you
can actually see the delegates and some of the public testimony
that took place in regards to this particular bill. I don't
know where this particular bill will go. Yeah. But it's always
fascinating to me, to watch the discussion take place in any
state legislature, the fact that a lot of states record and film
this stuff and make it available to the public is great. These
videos are typically like six, seven hours long. Yeah. And the
part that matters to us to you is only generally can only be
like 1015 minutes, 10 to 20 minutes. And so we just we just
find the segment that pertains to the particular bill in
question. We've got the two segments so far up on the site,
so you can watch and see for yourself. what's being said,
Exactly. It'll be interesting to see what what happens in
Virginia from here on out. I really have no idea. Yeah,
either. There is some encouraging aspects to it from
what you said, because they are trying to understand and they
are focusing, it seems to me, that they're focusing more on
making sure that at least the terms are understandable to the
average person, the average business owner.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah, and I think that's fair, because
something that we've seen in the industry is that sometimes
things play out unfairly. Obviously, the business owner
wants, you know, to play by his rules, and sometimes we've seen
it in the industry people get taken advantage of, and
something that she did say was that, like some of the business,
some of the MCA companies, they were discussing, like the prices
with the client, and essentially, what what had
happened was, let me check my notes right here. They pretty
much base the affordability of the loan based off of their pre
pandemic numbers. Okay. So, and then, you know, and also that
maybe they thought it was alone when it wasn't alone, correct.
That might have been one thing too. So in her defense, it's
like, you know, like, it may be a thing was within their first
language. Yeah. And that was another big thing that played a
part. You know, she specifically had specified that she was
working with, you know, immigrant business owners that
their first language is not English. So that's why she
proposed she's like, Hey, there were Pozos to make sure that the
language that is in the agreement is in plain language
that's understandable for everyone. Yeah. And that the
numbers make sense, you know that everything makes sense. So
when these guys sign with, you know, when the client signs with
the MCA companies that they understand what they're getting
themselves into. And then it makes sense to them. And like,
like, again, the one advice that I think you and I can agree on,
that the lawyer told the delegate here was that if you
don't have the money, if you can't afford it, don't do it.
Sean Murray: I think that's good, can't afford something
that think not doing something is.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah, don't do it.
Sean Murray: Proper advice.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. And so yeah, so again, I think it gives
a little for me, I think it's kind of a sigh of relief that
they want to work with MCA companies. It's not like they
want to completely just disregard everything and close
everything down and have all these obstacles from from what
it seemed like the proposal was, we're willing to work with the
MCA companies. But we just want to know more. We want to collect
more data, we want to make sure that everything's fair. That's
what it seems like right now. Obviously, that could change. We
don't know, we don't have a crystal ball. But yeah, that's
very interesting. It was an interesting session. Yeah. And
if there are any further hearings on it that are
recorded, we will make them available on our site, in
addition to if there's other hearings and other states, we
will try to put those up on the site as well. Yeah. So you know,
since we've been talking a lot about disclosures, something
that's going to be going on, on the 10th of February, there's
going to be a webinar, it's disclosures and regulations,
from a general counsel's perspective, something that
we've been talking about here a lot is, you know, just the
different disclosures happening in different states. And
everyone has a lot of questions. I know. And when we did Broker
Fair, you know, we had that entire panel, and it was a, it
was a popular session, because different states are doing the
disclosures differently. So there's a lot of questions. And
this webinar is going to be going on it's get, it's being
hosted by the alternative finance Bar Association. And
it's an event that we recommend, because they're gonna be
discussing different things, and pretty much not only discussing
like the disclosure laws from like, the different areas, but
also the discussing and exploring the possibility, the
possibility and the options of how to make strategic decisions
for growth in this specific time that, you know, we're seeing all
these disclosures come out. And I think that's a great idea. I
think that's good, because knowledge is power. And the more
you know, the more these business owners know about
what's going to happen, and how this will impact them. Because
something you and I have always said is that regardless of when
this takes place, when the disclosures actually hit a
business, it's going to affect all of us, right, individually,
and you know, in business.
Sean Murray: So this particular webinar, they say it's from a
general counsel's perspective, one thing I will say about being
a general counsel, is that it's probably much more difficult to
have to figure out the compliance with multiple states
versus complying with one federal law. I have heard
overheard, without, like naming anyone, but just kind of general
chatter that, you know, there's a wish that if it were any type
of regulation, in the commercial finance industry, that perhaps a
federal, you know, type of thing would be better, because
everyone could just comply with the one with the one Yeah,
rather than, hey, now we got to comply with New York wants this
way, California, this way, you know, marriage union, Maryland,
you know, Connecticut, New Jersey, and you gotta comply
with all these different things. And so it can be tough, tough
situation to navigate. If you're the general counsel for a
commercial finance firm, and one that offers sales based
financing, like MCA, this webinar is geared towards
talking about all the different things, the laws that have
already passed in, like New York and California, and the bills
that are also on the table in other states. Gotta be, you
know, general counsel's, you know, kind of worst nightmare to
be the one in charge of helping a firm navigate what's coming
up. And in California and New York, even though the laws have
passed, we have yet to see these particular laws actually go into
effect yet are still fine tuning Yeah, what's going to be
required? And now we're saying, Okay, it looks like it's going
to be this. But now this state is going to want this, this
state's going to want this. And you mentioned Broker Fair before
that's the cool part about a webinar. I think everyone's a
little zoomed out, so to speak. But a lot of people, at least
from the who were chief executives and general counsel's
one of the takeaways they got at Broker Fair that was very
valuable to them was the panel on disclosure right here. Now
you do not need to travel to get updated information. Yeah.
There's an actual webinar on the actual subject put on by the
alternative finance Bar Association. They have been
around for several years already. They usually put on at
least one annual event. I've actually even gone to one or two
of them, and they're a great organization. Shouldn't have
attorneys who can provide very helpful information. So if you
are a, a top level executive, your general counsel is someone
who, who needs to know something about how to proceed forward, I
highly recommend joining this webinar on February 10. And
right now, we're going to debanked.com, there is a story
on the homepage, you can go on there, and then click a link
within it. And it will take you to the registration page for the
webinar.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. And I think one thing that's
interesting, specifically in states that are so close
together, like DC, Virginia, you know, New Jersey, New York and
Connecticut is that they're so close together. And doing
business is so easy when you're, you know, just crossing state
borders. But what's really interesting, and it always makes
me laugh, you know, whether it's in real estate, whether it's in
the MCA world, in the MCA space, is that there's so many
different rules, that logically you would think, okay, like,
they may be similar. But when you actually read up on it,
they're completely different. And you're like, we're literally
like, less than five miles apart from each other, and some parts
and crossing over. It's just like a whole completely
different set of rules, a whole completely different set of just
like, approaches that you have to take, because lawmakers
decided to, like, make different laws in New Jersey, New York and
in Connecticut. And I think that always baffles me because, you
know, it, it's, it makes it harder for a business owner to
do business in other states, depending on what the rules are.
But yet, you're so close, and you're just like mentally you're
like, man, like, why is this so hard? And then sometimes you
disregard it, because you think it's so close, it's the same
thing. I've met people like that, you know, in this space
and other real estate, situations where they kind of
disregard it, and they think it's not going to be a big deal.
And it's a huge deal. And because they don't know, and
they think it's so close, you know, it ends up impacting how
they do business. So, but yeah, I definitely would encourage
everyone to check out the webinar, because especially now,
there's still a lot of unknowns, especially here in New York, the
language was so tough to like, understand it. And it was left
unclear. Yeah. And, you know, I think what I heard in Broker
Fair was a lot of people, they were really just trying to
figure out how are we going to do business? If we're in
Florida, and our business such as New York, and it touches New
Jersey, like how will this impact us and off camera, I
interviewed and spoke with a lot of different people, and they
were very worried this genuinely worried like, what are we going
to do? Like how this impact us etc, etc. So.
Sean Murray: Yeah, you know, the New York Department of Financial
Services, they announced on December on December 31, that
they are essentially delaying implementation of New York's
disclosure law, because they want to issue a revised
proposal, and that they would do it sometime early in the first
quarter. So I think everyone has kind of kept their their eyes
open, waiting for that to drop. Yeah, perhaps, you know, some
private draft copies. Everybody's been sent back and
forth. Yeah. To those that are that are in the know. But that
was the plan, as stated on December 31. Just recently, in
the last week, I believe, the superintendent, the new
superintendent, she was acting superintendent now she's
confirmed as the superintendent. She did put on her, I think it
was her 100 day plan, like first 100 days in office plan. She did
put that disclosure law in her objectives. So it wasn't like
it's, you know, oh, it's delayed. Now. It's lost in the
shop. Yeah. You know, maybe it's going to be delayed for years. I
didn't see it there in the in the 100 day plan. So I would
expect that we will hear about we will leave see the next
revised proposal from DFS about what everyone's going to have to
do. The law has already passed. Yeah. This isn't a bill, a law
is passed. The problem is that they, they gave everyone a
proposal about how it's going to be, you know, how everyone has
to comply with it. And people were like, none of this really
makes sense. Like, there's a lot of things that we're really
having trouble understanding. They're like, okay, yeah, you're
right. We're gonna go back to the drawing board and fix it
all. And we will see that one probably within well, they said
within the first 100 days, so. Yeah. Could be the could be the
end of March. Yeah. Could be tomorrow.
Johny Fernandez: Could be tomorrow, we don't know. But of
course, we'll keep you guys updated. And obviously for that
information, you can just log on to debanked.com You know, and
talking about debanked.com. Let's talk about deBanked
connect Miami. Okay. So obviously we said today that the
weather is kind of gloomy, it's cold. It's been cold this
weekend. So good getaway, it would be to go to Miami to go to
deBanked Connect Miami it's gonna be on March 24. And if
you're not doing anything too crazy for Valentine's Day, you
can do something before Valentine's Day to excite
yourself for Valentine's Day.
Sean Murray: What can you do to excite yourself for Valentine's
Day?
Johny Fernandez: All right, so we're doing a giveaway. It's a
Valentine's Day Giveaway. That's exciting because we're gonna
you're gonna find out on Valentine's day if you win, and
if you're the winner, it's gonna get you super excited.
Sean Murray: What do you get if you win?
Johny Fernandez: You get let me, you're gonna get two tickets to
deBanked Connect Miami. So in other words, those two tickets
on Valentine's day you will find out if you can head to Miami.
Sean Murray: Okay, so here's how you participate.
Johny Fernandez: Correct, but just just.
Okay yeah go ahead to clear the air. This does not include your
airplane ticket. This just includes your two tickets to
deBanked Connect Miami.
Sean Murray: That's right.
Johny Fernandez: And then someone's gonna call and be
like, hey, airfare.
Yeah, what plan Am I taking? Right? Yeah, it's two tickets to
the event itself. It does not include a plane or, or, or
hotel. If you're located in Miami, or in South Florida,
you're not going to need those things anyway. But either way,
we are giving away two free tickets to deBanked Connect
Miami. Alright. The rules to enter are as follows.
Okay, so we're gonna put a post up on our deBanked Connect
Sean Murray: Which is different from our regular deBanked social
social media page.
media pages.
Johny Fernandez: Alright, so you're gonna have to follow the
page deBanked Connect, go ahead.
Sean Murray: deBanked Connect, follow deBanked Connect.
Johny Fernandez: Alright.
Sean Murray: On social media. You can choose multiple,
multiple platforms.
Johny Fernandez: We have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
Instagram. So you know, like, you know, follow the page, then
you're going to like the post, okay.
Sean Murray: The Valentine's Day raffle.
Johny Fernandez: The Valentine's Day post, okay, we're being very
specific. All right. After that, you're going to tag a friend in
the comment. And the winner will be announced here on the 14th.
Sean Murray: So that means on Valentine's Day, cancel your
date plans, because you're going to be tuning in to deBanked TV
to find out if you're gonna get a free ticket to deBanked
Connect Miami was how you tell your date, you're gonna have to
postpone you have to tune in.
Johny Fernandez: That that's how you get excited. That's how we
will get people excited for Valentine's because you'll be
spending Valentine's day watching live. If you're gonna
go to Miami. Oh, listen, I'm gonna go if I did not. So if I,
if I was not here working with you, I would log on. I would
like it. Follow it like it. And then after that, I would tag
Sean Murray.
Sean Murray: You know, I will. I will just say this. A lot of
times when you hear about raffles and giveaways, there's
this belief or doubt that the whole thing is like rigged.
Yeah. Right. If you've talked to any of our previous winners of
any raffle. I mean, so often we've never met them. We haven't
heard of them. And we'll meet them at the show for the first
time. These are legit raffles legit giveaways. Yeah. If you
follow the instructions you're legitimately entered to win. If
we've never met him, we've never heard of you. There's no
backroom handshake agreement. No this is real. You have a valid
chance to win. If you follow the instructions. Again, go to the
deep event connect sorry, media pages. Correct. So. Any one of
them.
Johny Fernandez: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram,
follow the page, like the post the Valentine's Day post, and
then in the comments area, write, comment, tag a friend in
the comments area. And then from there, we will announce if you
won on February 14.
Sean Murray: And even if you're not tuning in on the 14th you
could still win. It is not a requirement that you tune into
Valentine's Day. So if you decided to hang out with a date
of Valentine's Day, instead of tuning into deBanked TV, that's
okay. Yeah, take it personally.
Johny Fernandez: Or, or you can just integrate watching with
your date watching.
Sean Murray: Ah, that's even better. Tell your date. You're
canceling the movie. No. You have another video that you'd
really like to watch.
Johny Fernandez: Listen, they can watch this and then they can
celebrate by going out to eat and then after that.
Sean Murray: Then deBanked TV and chill.
Johny Fernandez: Yes. But anyways, please, we're telling
you, it's gonna be a great time. It's gonna be awesome. The
weather's gonna be great. You're gonna hang out with us. What's
better than that?
Sean Murray: There's a lot of other things that are.
Johny Fernandez: Definitely not.
Sean Murray: We're not we're not so bad.
Johny Fernandez: We're not so bad. And then for the
information regarding deBanked Connect Miami, it's going to be
on the 24th at the J W. J. W. Marquis.
Sean Murray: Marriott.
Johny Fernandez: JW Marriott Marquis, excuse me. And then
obviously, you know, we still have tickets available
beforehand, there's going to be an event a golf outing, but
that's completely separate tickets. So if you're interested
in that, also sign up and attend that that.
Sean Murray: I'm not supposed to say this at my team's they get
mad at me. But we're approaching some records that's all I'm
gonna say so do not wait too long to register for the event.
Yeah. It's going to be very big. It's going to be a great
awesome, excellent time.
Johny Fernandez: I have people already reaching out to me
saying that they're excited to hang out with us to see the
other people in the industry. And I think I'm just gonna I'm
just gonna say this people probably gonna get mad. I don't
really care. You're ready for this? So okay.
Sean Murray: I don't know. We'll see.
Johny Fernandez: So, Broker Fair is great. Broker Fair is in New
York. I love New York City. I that's where I live here. I'm
gonna die here. I'm a New Yorker for life.
Sean Murray: Okay.
Johny Fernandez: All right. Don't let my girlfriend.
Sean Murray: Why do why do so many New Yorkers emphasize that
they're going to they want to die here.
Johny Fernandez: Cause I love New York.
Sean Murray: Okay.
Johny Fernandez: All right.
Sean Murray: That's all that's all anyway go on.
Johny Fernandez: So Broker Fair is great. It's New York but
Miami deBanked Connect Miami two different events. They're not
the same event, but there's a different feel in Miami and it's
exciting. And the sun's out and after the event you can go to
the beach, you can go have fun. You can live the Miami life for
a quick day or two. And it's and people are like, is it gonna be
like deBanked like Broker Fair. It's not it's gonna be
different. Different location different vibe is gonna be
great. Yeah. You're gonna see everyone.
Sean Murray: We posted some sizzle reels of previous
deBanked Connect Miamis. It's not the first one we've ever
done. This is the fourth one. The fourth time that we'll be in
Miami.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah, it's gonna be fun. I'm really
excited. And then after the event, I'm I'm gonna go get a
Cuban sandwich.
Sean Murray: Okay.
Johny Fernandez: I have that already mentally planned out.
Sean Murray: And then are you going to the gym afterwards?
Maybe do some laundry? Yeah. What are you gonna do after that?
Johny Fernandez: I'm gonna go to shore house. But, yeah, so
please, you're not gonna want to miss it. And honestly, sign up
to see if you win the raffle because it's two free tickets to
deBanked Connect Miami. It's gonna be great.
Sean Murray: Legit raffle. Enter and tune in on the 14th. And
even if you don't tune in, if you win, we'll let you know. Yeah.
Johny Fernandez: All right, you guys. So that's all the time we
have for today. Of course. We'll see you guys next time. I'm
Johny Fernandez.
Sean Murray: I'm Sean Murray.
Johny Fernandez: And we'll see you guys later.