Tag: Legal

Regardless of the industry you work in, or whether you’ve been in the credit field for decades or only a matter of months, it is vital that you know and understand the federal laws that regulate a credit managers’ activity. Credit managers across industries are beholden to the regulations set by the Equal Opportunity Credit Act (ECOA), which prohibits discrimination in the extension of credit. ECOA forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, color, creed, national origin, age or marital status in the extension of credit.  

The American Industrial Revolution, spanning the late 18th and 19th centuries, marked a shift from manual labor to industrialization, leading to the rise of big businesses and the formation of monopolies. This era also gave birth to antitrust laws aimed at preventing businesses from gaining too much power.

Senate Bill 1286 (SB 1286), signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 24, 2024, will extend existing consumer debt collection protections in the state to small businesses and to the collection activities of business debt.

A federal judge in Kentucky partially blocked the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, a decades-old Department of Transportation program that aims to grant women- and minority-owned businesses equal footing when bidding on government contracts.

Escheatment is the legal process of transferring unclaimed or abandoned property to the state such as bank accounts, uncashed checks, credit balances or other funds that have not been claimed by customers or vendors within a specified period.

The credit department aims to maximize safe sales, requiring tough decisions. Denying credit is a last resort but sometimes essential.

Since Colorado first legalized medical cannabis in 1996, more than half of the U.S. has legalized marijuana for recreational use today. But possession and distribution or sale remains illegal under federal law—meaning any money that can be traced back to state cannabis operations could expose banks to significant regulatory risk.

Competition creates significant consumer benefits, including increased innovation, efficiency, variety, quality and lower prices. Antitrust laws, which prevent companies from unfairly dominating markets or stifling competition, ensure that customers have options. Why it matters: Understanding and complying with antitrust laws is essential in the credit industry to preserve competition, prevent violations that could lead to severe penalties including fines and imprisonment, and maintain a company’s reputation and future business opportunities.

After a brief respite of bipartisanship in January, the border security and foreign aid package is officially dead in the water, and the Senate’s busy legislative calendar has effectively stalled the bipartisan tax package that the House passed last week. In other words, everything is back to normal in D.C. On Wednesday, Jan. 31, the House passed, by a strong margin of 357-70, a bipartisan tax package that extended the increased child tax credit for another two years as well as several business tax provisions that were part of the Trump tax cuts in 2017. Most notably: