Some companies selling high-interest personal loans could get a break from new oversight by the federal government when it completes a long-anticipated rule on payday lending in September, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to scale back its new rule on small-dollar lending as it rushes to complete the regulation before a Trump appointee takes over its leadership, industry lobbyists and consumer groups say. Facing pressure to wrap up the rule, the bureau has reduced its scope from a proposed version released in 2016, people familiar with the matter said. The rule is now expected to focus on short-term payday loans that are typically due in two weeks, or the borrower’s next payday, with annual interest rates of as much as 390 percent. To be excluded are high-cost installment loans lasting 45 days or longer.
