Loans may be in excess of individual state usury laws; however, CRB as the true lender is able to export rates that preempt state
usury rate caps.
Federal law currently does not specify a federal
usury rate, other than in limited circumstances where, for example, loans that are made at grossly excessive rates of interest can result in criminal liability, (11) or where certain types of loans are made to military servicemembers or their families.
"One effort tried to cap the state's states
usury rate at 500 percent, but no one [in the legislature] would touch it.
(115) These measures are not meant as a substitute for the imposition of
usury rate caps.
Arizona's Proposition 200 reapplied the state's
usury rate cap to payday lenders, who had previously enjoyed an exemption.
In her testimony, Fox urged subcommittee members to back an alternative measure, the Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Credit Rates Act of 2009, which would establish a national
usury rate cap of 36 percent.
As a result of the Federal Reserve's actions, the new maximum rate
usury rate in Arkansas is 5.5 percent.
Italy's
usury rate is updated every three months in a formula that essentially imposes a rate no higher than 1.5 times the previous quarter's average.
The usury law constrains the bank's ability to set the inflation rate to maximize the amount of loans, but if the
usury rate is greater than the real rate of interest this does not affect the bank's ability to earn the rate `[pi]' on its loans.
Michael Kaelin, D-Lyndeborough, would establish a "criminal
usury rate" of 30 percent, based on the current cap in effect in New Jersey.
H&R Block Inc., 287 F.3d 1038 (2002), however, said he found language in a law predating the NBA's enactment in 1864 that shows that the
usury rate action can be filed only in federal court.