Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are taking a hard look at federal lending. Specifically, lawmakers are reviewing whether to change and update current accounting rules.
Joint Economic Committee Chairman and Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) says loans made or guaranteed by the federal government totaled $2.9 trillion through September of last year. That figure includes $1.1 trillion in student loans. Non-mortgage consumer debt totaled $3.3 trillion.
Coats says those figures mean the federal government is the largest consumer lender in the United States, but he thinks lenders of all sizes can benefit from the rules re-write.
"Inaccurate monitoring can bring economic harm to both borrowers who pay higher interest rates to cover the defaults of others, private lenders who are frozen out of markets they seek to serve and taxpayers," Coats says.
He says financial rules passed more than two decades ago need updating to address the financial complexities of today‘s world.