H.R. 9330 does something no federal statute has done before: it tells regulators, by name, that earned wage access products are not loans. The Earned Wage Access Consumer Protection Act, advanced out of the House Financial Services Committee on June 30, requires fee-charging providers to offer a free option, bars interest charges and debt collection, and locks that classification into federal law.
That’s the old yardstick versus the new one. Until now, states decided whether EWA fees counted as payday lending under a patchwork of laws. H.R. 9330 preempts that patchwork with one national standard, exactly what sponsor Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., pushed for and what Ranking Member Maxine Waters called a rollback of state consumer protection.
The same markup cleared the STOP Payments Fraud Act, which lets banks hold funds longer on checks or wires they suspect are fraudulent, and the Credit Access and Inclusion Act, which lets landlords and utilities report payment histories to credit bureaus.
This isn’t law yet. Ordered reported favorably makes a bill eligible for a floor vote, not scheduled for one. But the “not loans” language in H.R. 9330 is the line worth tracking. If it survives to enactment, every state regulator currently treating EWA fees as disguised interest loses that argument the day the President signs it.
Worth reading the bill text before your next EWA vendor contract renewal.
Rebecca Lauren