Summary
The Federal Trade Commission filed a comment on the Department of Defense’s proposed amendments to its regulation implementing the Military Lending Act (“MLA”). FTC staff supports DoD’s efforts to implement strong consumer protections for service members, and gave their support for a number of the proposed amendments, including the new framework for creditors to ensure that consumers entitled to the MLA’s protections are accurately identified, as well as efforts to stop creditors that evade MLA coverage while offering a substantially similar product to those products currently covered by the existing rule. FTC staff was concerned, however, about the proposal to give certain types of creditors, such as insured credit unions, limited or complete exemptions from the regulations. Staff was also opposed to the elimination of the requirement that information be disclosed “clearly and conspicuously.”