I 
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6483 
To amend the Truth in Lending Act to address certain issues related to 
the extension of consumer credit, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 
Ms. BONAMICI (for herself, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. CLARKE of 
Michigan, Mr. FILNER, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. SAR-
BANES, and Ms. CHU) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To amend the Truth in Lending Act to address certain 
issues related to the extension of consumer credit, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stopping Abuse and 
Fraud in Electronic Lending Act of 2012’’ or the ‘‘SAFE 
Lending Act of 2012’’. 
SEC. 2. CONSUMER CONTROL OVER BANK ACCOUNTS. 
(a) PROHIBITING UNAUTHORIZED REMOTELY CRE-
ATED CHECKS.—Section 905 of the Electronic Fund 
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Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693c) is amended by adding at 
the end the following: 
‘‘(d) 
LIMITATIONS
ON
REMOTELY
CREATED 
CHECKS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the limitations 
set forth under paragraph (2) and any additional 
limitations that the Bureau may establish, by rule, 
a remotely created check may only be issued by a 
person designated in writing by the consumer, such 
designation specifically provided in writing by the 
consumer to the insured depository institution at 
which the consumer maintains the account from 
which the check is to be drawn. 
‘‘(2) ADDITIONAL LIMITATIONS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—An authorization pro-
vided under paragraph (1) may be revoked at 
any time by the consumer. 
‘‘(B) CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION 
LAWS.—No payment order, including a re-
motely created check, may be issued by any per-
son in response to the exercise of, or attempt to 
exercise, any rights by a consumer under any 
Federal consumer financial law (as defined in 
section 1002(14) of the Consumer Financial 
Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 5481(14))) 
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or any other provision of any law or regulation 
within the jurisdiction of the Bureau. 
‘‘(3) REMOTELY CREATED CHECK DEFINED.— 
For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘remotely 
created check’ means a check (including paper and 
electronic checks and any other payment order that 
the Bureau, by rule, determines is appropriately cov-
ered by this subsection) that— 
‘‘(A) is not created by the financial institu-
tion that holds the customer account from 
which the check is to be paid; and 
‘‘(B) does not bear a signature applied, or 
purported to be applied, by the person from 
whose account the check is to be paid.’’. 
(b) CONSUMER PROTECTIONS FOR CERTAIN ONE- 
TIME ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFERS.—Section 913 of 
the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693k) is 
amended— 
(1) by inserting ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—’’ before 
‘‘No person’’; 
(2) striking ‘‘preauthorized electronic fund 
transfers’’ and inserting ‘‘an electronic fund trans-
fer’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘(b) TREATMENT FOR ELECTRONIC FUND TRANS-
FERS IN CREDIT EXTENSIONS.—If a consumer voluntarily 
agrees to repay an extension of small-dollar consumer 
credit transaction (as defined in section 140B(b) of the 
Truth in Lending Act) by means of an electronic fund 
transfer, such electronic fund transfer shall be treated as 
a preauthorized electronic fund transfer subject to the pro-
tections of this title.’’. 
SEC. 3. CONSISTENT APPLICATION OF LAW FOR SMALL- 
DOLLAR LENDING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 2 of the Truth in Lend-
ing Act (15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘SEC. 140B. CONSISTENT APPLICATION OF LAW FOR 
SMALL-DOLLAR LENDING. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other pro-
vision of law or any agreement between the parties to a 
transaction, and except to the extent that Federal or tribal 
law affords greater protection to the consumer, any small- 
dollar consumer credit transaction made over the Internet, 
telephone, facsimile, mail, electronic mail, or other elec-
tronic communication and any small-dollar consumer cred-
it transaction conducted by an insured depository institu-
tion (as defined in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insur-
ance Act) shall comply with the laws of the State in which 
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the consumer resides with respect to annual percentage 
rates, interest, fees, charges, and such other similar or re-
lated matters as the Bureau may, by rule, determine. 
‘‘(b) DEFINITION.—As used in this section, the term 
‘small-dollar consumer credit transaction’ means any 
transaction that extends, facilitates, brokers, arranges, or 
gathers applications for credit that is— 
‘‘(1) made to a consumer in an amount of not 
more than $5,000, or such greater amount as the 
Bureau may, by rule, determine, such amount to be 
adjusted annually to reflect changes in the Con-
sumer Price Index for all urban consumers published 
by the Department of Labor; and 
‘‘(2) extended pursuant to an agreement that 
is— 
‘‘(A) other than an open-end credit plan 
and is payable in one or more installments of 
less than 12 months (or such longer period as 
the Bureau may, by rule, determine); 
‘‘(B) an open-end credit plan in which each 
advance is fully repayable within a defined time 
or in connection with a defined event, or both; 
or 
‘‘(C) such other plan as the Bureau deter-
mines, by rule.’’. 
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(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con-
tents in chapter 2 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 
1601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new item: 
‘‘140B. Consistent application of law for small-dollar lending.’’. 
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON LEAD GENERATION AND ANONYM-
ITY IN SMALL-DOLLAR CONSUMER CREDIT 
TRANSACTIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 2 of the Truth in Lend-
ing Act (15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), as amended by this Act, 
is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘SEC. 140C. PROHIBITION ON LEAD GENERATION AND ANO-
NYMITY IN SMALL-DOLLAR CONSUMER CRED-
IT TRANSACTIONS. 
‘‘(a) IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.—Any person 
engaged in the business of facilitating, brokering, arrang-
ing, gathering applications for, distributing sensitive per-
sonal financial information, or extending credit in connec-
tion with small-dollar consumer credit transactions shall 
prominently disclose information by which they may be 
contacted or identified, including for service of process and 
for identification of the registrant of any domain name 
registered or used. 
‘‘(b) PROHIBITION ON LEAD GENERATION IN SMALL- 
DOLLAR CONSUMER CREDIT TRANSACTIONS.—No person 
may engage in the business of facilitating, brokering, ar-
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ranging, gathering applications for, or distributing sen-
sitive personal financial information in connection with 
small-dollar consumer credit transactions, unless the per-
son is directly extending the small-dollar consumer credit 
to the consumer. 
‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 
‘‘(1) the term ‘sensitive personal financial infor-
mation’ means the consumer’s Social Security num-
ber, financial account number, bank routing number, 
bank account number, or any required security or 
access code that are immediately necessary to permit 
access to the financial account of an individual; and 
‘‘(2) the term ‘small-dollar consumer credit 
transaction’ has the same meaning as in section 
140B(b). 
‘‘(d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—Nothing in this section 
may be interpreted to limit the authority of the Bu-
reau to further restrict activities covered by this sec-
tion. 
‘‘(2) CLARIFICATION.—It shall not be consid-
ered ‘facilitating’ in connection with small-dollar 
consumer credit transactions to be engaged solely 
in— 
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‘‘(A) the provision of a telecommunications 
service, or of an Internet access service or 
Internet information location tool (as those 
terms are defined in section 231 of the Commu-
nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 231)); or 
‘‘(B) the transmission, storage, retrieval, 
hosting, formatting, or translation (or any com-
bination thereof) of a communication, without 
selection or alteration of the content of the 
communication, except that deletion of a par-
ticular communication or material made by an-
other person in a manner consistent with sec-
tion 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 230(c)). 
‘‘(e) CIVIL LIABILITY.—Violations of this section 
shall be subject to the civil liability provisions of section 
130, and any person who violates this section shall be 
treated as a creditor for purposes of section 130.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con-
tents in chapter 2 of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 
1601 et seq.), as amended by section 3(b), is further 
amended by adding at the end the following new item: 
‘‘140C. Prohibition on lead generation and anonymity in small-dollar consumer 
credit transactions.’’. 
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tion of the relevant consumer lending 
laws. 
‘‘(B) ACCEPTANCE OF JURISDICTION.—In 
the event of the filing of any civil action in the 
appropriate United States district court for a 
violation of State or tribal consumer lending 
laws, the covered person shall accept service 
and waive, in a timely manner, any objections 
to jurisdiction, as set forth in the statement de-
scribed in subparagraph (A)(iv). 
‘‘(C) INVESTIGATIONS.—Any limitations on 
investigations under this paragraph shall not 
apply if— 
‘‘(i) any of the information provided 
by the covered person is inaccurate in any 
way; or 
‘‘(ii) at any point, the covered person 
fails to respond to or abide by any order 
or request of the relevant court. 
‘‘(4) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—It shall not be 
considered a violation of this section to be engaged 
solely in— 
‘‘(A) the provision of a telecommunications 
service, or of an Internet access service or 
Internet information location tool (as those 
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