THE UNIFORM CONSUMER CREDIT CODE

Abstract

Recently the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws adopted by unanimous vote the Consumer Credit Code as a uniform law. My objective is to give a brief survey of some of the major policy decisions made in shaping the Code. As you know, the Code covers credit sales and loans made to individuals for consumer purposes. It requires disclosure of finance and other charges; it imposes ceilings on rates of finance charges; it regulates credit insurance; it provides remedies for consumers and limits the remedies of creditors; and it establishes an administrator with powers over all consumer credit suppliers. A good case can be made that consumer credit law is now ready for the recodification and uniformity that the Code provides. Legislators, administrators, and courts have been working on consumer credit problems at the state level for a half century, and a great volume of wellintended legislation has been enacted on the subject, particularly in the last 25 years. Some of this legislation has been beneficial and some of it has not. In those years we've learned a great deal, and the many people who have labored these past five years on the consumer credit code have worked to incorporate this experience into that act in order to build the kind of sensible, practical legal foundation that will allow consumer credit to continue its growth in years to come with adequate protection for the interests of both consumers and credit suppliers. Little in the Consumer Credit Code is new; almost all of it has been tried in one jurisdiction or another. Consumer credit is now a problem of national scope and interest to consumers and creditors alike and the code is an attempt to bring nationwide uniformity to the area.