In 2021, there was a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee on the deferred presentment industry. Many important topics were brought up including a powerful statement from Patricia Herndon, Michigan Bankers Association (MBA) – EVP, Government Relations. She pointed out during her testimony that MBA is generally neutral on deferred presentment lending but added that “there is a place for payday lending as a lender of last resort and that it is an important part of the ecosystem.”
Another interesting point that was brought up was that of customer satisfaction with the industry. DIFS did not have exact figures, but they shared that the number of complaints is “relatively small in comparison to the nearly 6,000 complaints we get on all financial and insurance matters.”
Michigan Lending Facts wanted to dive deeper into the numbers so you had the full picture by looking at of the two most common places to lodge a complaint against the industry:
- Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) – state oversight of the industry.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – federal oversight of the industry.
Deferred Presentment complaints by year*
| Year | DIFS | CFPB |
| 2023* | 7 | 12 |
| 2022 | 18 | 20 |
| 2021 | 5 | 17 |
| 2020 | 28 | 16 |
| 2019 | 29 | 29 |
| 2018 | 23 | 28 |
| 2017 | 21 | 33 |
| Average per year | 19.9 | 24.1 |
To put these numbers in perspective, DIFS reported 5,797 total complaints in 2019 meaning only .5% involved deferred presentment lenders. In comparison, during that same year, credit unions had 10 times the number of complaints (286) and since 2017 have averaged 317 complaints per year compared to about 20 complaints per year for deferred presentment lenders. These numbers demonstrate that the deferred presentment industry is operating well in the state and consumers are satisfied with their experience with these lenders.