Who is the Online Lenders Alliance?
According to the Online Lenders Alliance website, the organization has been around since 2005, when it began working on behalf of the companies involved with the online lending industry. The Organization represents a growing of U.S. based companies offering consumers short-term loans, also known by many as payday loans, cash advance loans, or micro loans.
OLA suggests that with more and more companies offering these short term loans, many industry people became very concerned that there was potential for lenders to not act in good faith. OLA was formed to protect the industry against the potential challenges posed by inept lenders.
The first step OLA took was to make a standardized set of principles by which loans should be made.
Apparently, all of the OLA member Companies have agreed to their Best Practices and The OLA Code of Conduct to ensure that customers are fully informed, treated fairly, and have access to all lending products and practices in a more responsible way.
While there are thousands and thousands of positive stories from short-term loan customers, OLA indicates that there are still a large number of mistruths and misconceptions about the lending industry. OLA says that one of its objectives is to dispel the myths about the industry, and clear misconceptions with education, and discussion with legislation regarding the industry.
OLA says they have the authority to speak on behalf of the online lending industry to the public, opinion leaders and government officials. Apparently, OLA is staffed by experts in trade association management and highly qualified to take collective action to ensure compliance with antitrust, tax and lobbying laws. Ola states that the issues affecting the industry are extremely complex so they have numerous experts that they consult.
