As chair of the Senate Financial Institutions Committee, State Senator Sara Feigenholtz spearheaded a new law to make sure financial regulators have sufficient authority to oversee the entities they license and put an end to unlicensed financial activities in Illinois.
“As chair of the Financial Institutions Committee, updating the safeguards we have in place to better protect Illinois consumers is a priority,” said Feigenholtz (D-Chicago). “This law equips regulators with the tools they need to ensure a robust, fair business environment in our state.”
Feigenholtz’s measure modernizes the law regulating non-banking financial entities like credit unions, currency exchanges, pawnbrokers and payday lenders in Illinois. The new law expands the definition of “financial institutions” to include collection agencies and consumer legal funding companies. It also provides the Division of Financial Institutions at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation with more substantial enforcement authority so the agency can investigate complaints against the entities it licenses.
“The purpose of a financial institution is to protect the earnings of taxpayers,” Feigenholtz added. “By modernizing oversight and expanding the agency’s ability to hold bad actors accountable, residents will have better peace of mind that the financial services they rely on are operating fairly and transparently.”
Senate Bill 3550 was signed into law Friday and goes into effect immediately.
