Big news in New York last week, the legislature recently passed
a commercial financing disclosure law that is certain
to shake up the small business finance industry.
We started drafting this bill maybe over a year ago. And we
worked with all parties to get to the point where we are right
now.
Hello, everyone. And welcome back to deBanked News. My name
is Sean Murray. And the law I'm referring to is likely to have
the largest impact on factoring companies and merchant cash
advance providers. That's because the law requires a
mandatory APR disclosure, even if the transactions are not
loans. In fact, the law says if you can't calculate an APR, you
should estimate one. In fact, the bill says the word
"estimate" more than 20 times. And now let's go over to Johny
Fernandez.
That's why this bill is important. That's why New York
leads
Some industry participants are calling the bill of victory.
deBanked recently spoke with the Innovative Lending Platform
Association who helped draft the bill. Scott Stewart, the head of
the ILPA, told us the following
I think we came through with almost everything that we wanted
to see. It's a it's a very, it skews very closely to the
smartbox. And we're very proud of that. And I think that the
collaboration with our partners in the legislature, in the
drafting as well as various other groups really brought it
to a place where you know where it's going to be a tremendous
success and have a great value, we think to small businesses
again.
But not everything is clear, unusual terminology remained in
the final version of the bill that is likely to create
confusion.
I've looked and I cannot find any financial disclosure
document anywhere in the United States where the term "double
dipping" is used. Now I know what it means when you're at a
party and someone does it with a bowl of potato chips. Yep, I get
that. But when it comes to financial services, could you
please tell me what we would use "double dipping" for?
Sean, well it is important to note that the bill actually has
to be signed by the governor and then after that there will be a
deliberation process. Now at this point, this can take
anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years to become a
reality. Now the best piece of advice for people affected by
this is to seek advice or counsel from either a trade
association or law firm.
Johny, had there been any additional foot traffic out on
Wall Street since the last report in?
Sean, no, there hasn't. And actually, we were there this
morning walking in the downtown area on Wall Street and by the
bull and it's the same story there. Sean actually right next
door to the Department of State where I'm standing at is
actually a restaurant. So we've been here in this generic area
on Wall Street and by the bull and it's the same old story but
like similar stories like this restaurant, you can see that
they're closed, you can see the chains right here. They are
locked and there are many signs around this area that are
announcing that these restaurants are closed. And Sean
and something else that I've noticed that is completely gone
is your hair.
Well, I mean, to be fair to me, it was my first haircut since
March. But since I need to defend myself, I'll tell you
what, I will pull up a photo of what I looked like when my hair
was not all jumbled up, that if you guys behind me will pull up
the photo. I think you know which ones I'm talking about. If
you'll put it up on the screen. It will show you what what my
hair situation had gotten to, but I must warn you it's not safe
for all audiences. Yeah, there it is. Okay. See, see now my
hair was a good foot up in the air. And that's not using
any product. There's no gel in there. That was how I woke up
in the morning. So you have to understand why I did what I
I did. And someone pointed out to me earlier that the
worst part of the picture isn't even the hair. It's the fact
that I took a picture using a mirror as if I had forgotten that phones
have front facing cameras So there's a lot of things wrong
with that picture. I didn't intend to show it to you today
But since Johny called me out on it, now the whole world has seen
I guess that's why we've been keeping you in the studio.
Fair enough. Fair enough. You got me. Okay. Well, we recently
spoke to somebody who has worked in the financial district
for years. His name is Chad Otar, CEO of Lending Valley and he
has been holed up in of all places, Turkey.
We came out here on March 3 for actually a week. For a wedding
and my cousin was getting married to his high school
weetheart. And we actually got stuck since the whole entire
pandemic started. So we've been like I said from March 3,
and today is what, July 24. And I'm still out here and I'm still
waiting to get back home. But Lending Valley's still been
operational and I've been working remotely. And actually Lending
Valley doesn't even have an office anymore as well. All of our
guys are working remotely.
When is Chad Otar the man returning to America and getting
American normalcy?
Ah, honestly, I got used to this life. I love it here. You know,
there's one thing I love, you have a better quality of life
but unfortunately, as they say all good things need to come to
an end
We look forward to Chad's safe return to the United States. Thank
you for joining. I'm Sean Murray with deBanked News