On one of our latest episodes of the AFSA Extra Credit Podcast, Celia Winslow, President and CEO of AFSA sits down with the oldest and youngest generation of the family business at 1st Franklin Financial. While both go by Ben Cheek, one is a recent graduate of Auburn University and the newest generation of Cheek serving as […]

Last week, AFSA’s SGA team attended the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) Conference in Bellevue, Washington. The team participates in this conference each year to track emerging mortgage policy and regulatory developments, while also building and strengthening relationships with state regulators. These connections are particularly valuable because many of these regulators also oversee […]

August 20, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET Consumer lenders closely monitor the cost of accepting payments, often focusing on transaction fees and processor invoices. But what if those costs represent only a small fraction of what it actually takes to get paid? New research from PayNearMe introducing the Payment Experience Gap found that transaction fees […]

For some time now, AFSA has made a simple point about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s public complaint database. A complaint is a claim, not a finding. When the Bureau publishes an unverified narrative, it presents one side of a story that no one has checked, then invites the public to treat it as fact. […]

On its face, Thursday’s inflation report was good news. Wholesale prices were flat from June to July (economists expected a 0.2 percent increase), and the year-over-year rise in the Producer Price Index slowed to 4.7 percent, down sharply from 5.5 percent in June. After a spring and summer of resurgent inflation, any cooling is welcome. The […]

The Loan Is Booked. The Profit Isn’t. Servicing Is Eating Originations: What Lenders Are Missing After the Loan Is Booked August 13, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET Auto lending has traditionally focused on winning at origination, but the next competitive advantage may come from managing the portfolio after the loan is booked. This session explores […]

A recent Washington Examiner op-ed calls AFSA “a strident voice opposing greater consumer choice in debt relief” and suggests our motives are suspect because our members are lenders. We’ll take the compliment on “strident.” The rest deserves a response. Start with what the op-ed gets right, almost by accident: responsible debt relief can be an essential tool […]

August 20, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET Consumer lenders closely monitor the cost of accepting payments, often focusing on transaction fees and processor invoices. But what if those costs represent only a small fraction of what it actually takes to get paid? New research from PayNearMe introducing the Payment Experience Gap found that transaction fees […]

Consumer confidence slid again in July. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 90.8 — below the 92.3 economists expected — as Americans’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions declined for the third month in a row. The reading captured a darker mood than the University of Michigan’s sentiment survey […]

August 13, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET Auto lending has traditionally focused on winning at origination, but the next competitive advantage may come from managing the portfolio after the loan is booked. This session explores how servicing has become a key driver of risk management, retention, and profitability. We’ll examine emerging downstream risks, including repossessions, […]