Payday Reform News: Week of May 31

May 27, 2016
Kansas City Star
Hopes soar on effort against payday loans

Other Top Stories:

May 31, 2016
Columbia Missourian
CARL KENNEY: It’s time to stop financial predators from gouging the vulnerable
Payday lenders are gangsters protected by our state government. They wreak havoc on families who make the decision to pay high interest rates because they have few options. Although governments are quick to regulate the usury of gangsters, they are slow to place caps on the activities of businesses that do the same thing.

May 31, 2016
LA Times
Federal suit would take Google’s payday lending crackdown one step further
Last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued T3Leads, a Burbank broker that sells consumer loan inquiries to online lenders, alleging that it does little to prevent the lead-generation sites it works with from making misleading claims.
The case, which could close the loophole in Google’s new policy, is being closely watched by the industry.
More coverage:
USA Today | Google’s ad ban puts payday lenders on the defensive

May 30, 2016
Indy Star
Rein in payday loan industry
Predatory lending practices don’t just harm financially vulnerable individuals, they harm Indiana’s economy as a whole. Payday lenders collected more than $70 million in finance charges from Hoosiers in 2015, and it’s estimated that payday lending resulted in a net loss of over $16 million in economic activity and 241 jobs for the state.

May 26, 2016
Springfield News-Leader
Predatory lending may be legal, but it’s not right
Just because such predatory lending practices are currently legal in the state of Missouri doesn’t make them right. And even though it would be nice for the market to provide alternatives to the big-money predatory payday lending industry, the market isn’t always benevolent, especially when it comes to the poor and vulnerable members of society.

May 25, 2016
Jacksonville Free Press
Google Bans Payday and Other Predatory Loan Ads
Google, the Internet’s leading search engine, announced that effective July 1 it will ban ads for payday loans and other loan products that require full repayment within 60 days. In the United States, Google will also ban ads for loans with an annual percentage rate of 36 percent or higher. “This change is designed to protect our users from deceptive or harmful financial products,” noted Google in its corporate blog.

May 25, 2016
Tampa Bay Times
Online ad knocks Florida lawmakers for payday lender support
Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Alcee Hastings and Dennis Ross are accused of “sabotaging” new payday loan regulations in a web ad from a liberal group critical of the industry.
More coverage:
Saint Peters Blog | Advocacy group again attacks “Florida model” of payday lending in new video
Florida Politics | ADVOCACY GROUP AGAIN ATTACKS “FLORIDA MODEL” OF PAYDAY LENDING IN NEW VIDEO

May 23, 2016
Springfield News-Sun
Church leaders: Payday loans hurt Springfield
Local church leaders want Springfield to support proposed regulations for payday lending centers, which they say are harming the working poor

More News:
June 1, 2016
CT News Junkie
Hundreds to benefit from payday loan settlement
The settlement will result in the dismissal of at least 50 garnishment actions and 800 judgments that Advance ‘Til Payday had obtained in court against borrowers who defaulted on the loans, according to Jay Speer of the Virginia Poverty Law Center, which brought the suit.

May 31, 2016
Tampa Bay Times
Group targets DNC chair with TV ad over payday lending bill
A liberal group is spending $100,000 in television ads in South Florida to call out embattled Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for not cracking down harder on what many call the predatory practices of the payday lending industry.
Reprints: Sun Sentinel
More coverage:
Raw Story | ‘Debt Trap Debbie’ Wasserman Schultz slammed in new ad for siding with predatory lenders
SALON | TV ad blasts “Debt Trap Debbie” Wasserman Schultz for supporting predatory payday lenders
Tampa Bay Times | Debbie Wasserman Schultz target of another payday loan ad

May 31, 2016
Consumer Affairs
Democratic chair co-sponsors bill to hamper CFPB’s regulation of payday lenders
While Republicans work to tighten the purse strings of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a number of Democrats — including Democratic National Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz — are co-sponsoring a bill that would restrict the CFPB’s ability to regulate payday lenders.

May 31, 2016
KSHB 41
Efforts to end predatory lending lead to Kansas City
Efforts to end predatory lending will culminate this week in Kansas City with a national day of action. Advocates expect federal guidelines to be outlined to protect people from costly payday loans.

May 31, 2016
El Paso Inc
Car title loans can lead to long-term debt
Most borrowers who take out a single-payment car title loan end up borrowing again because they can’t afford to make the payment when it’s due, new federal research shows.
More coverage:
Post-Bulletin | Study finds high rate of repossessions in auto title loans

May 31, 2016
KCTV News 5
KCK reverend sounds alarm on payday loans
“There are too many of them in our community and they prey on the working poor,” said Rev. Stevie Wakes, pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Kansas City, KS.

May 28, 2016
The Des Moines Register
Editorial: State must do more to stop payday lending
The payday lending industry is finding plenty of customers in Iowa. Fifty different entities hold state licenses for 173 locations offering “delayed deposit services,” better known as payday lending. In 2014, they issued more than 760,000 short-term loans valued at nearly $280 million, according to information the editorial board obtained from the Iowa Division of Banking.

May 27, 2016
Cleveland.com
Despicable coddling of payday lenders in Columbus lets them have a field day in Ohio: Brent Larkin
A November 2015 report by the Center for Responsible Lending said payday loans or car title loans at those stores now earn payday lenders more than $500 million annually in “predatory loan fees” that “further expose Ohioans to the harms of unaffordable loans secured by their bank accounts and cars.”

May 27, 2016
The News & Observer
Susan Tompor: Will Google’s move banning payday loan ads be the end of such loans?
Quick-fix loans charging triple-digit rates seem to be viewed by Google and others now with the same social stigma as other dangerous products banned from advertising, such as cocaine, crystal meth and cigarettes.

May 27, 2016
Yahoo Finance
Typo turns Oregon woman’s $300 loan into a $40,000 nightmare
Stephanie Banks’ $40,000 payday loan nightmare may soon be over. After two years, hundreds of dollars in legal fees, and an ongoing court battle, the lender, Wichita, Kan.-based Rapid Cash, claims it was all a misunderstanding.
More coverage:
MSN Money | The shocking number of Americans who can’t cover a $400 expense

May 26, 2016
Detroit Free Press
Will Google’s move banning payday loan ads be the end of such loans?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will hold an a field hearing about small dollar lending on June 2 in Kansas City, Mo. Small-dollar loans can involve annualized interest rates that top 300%.

May 26, 2016
Business Recorder
US TO CRACK DOWN ON PAYDAY LOANS
For the first time, the US government plans to implement a new rule that could limit the short-term, small-dollar loans that typically are due to be repaid on the borrower’s next payday.

May 25, 2016
Sioux City Journal
Challenge to ballot measure capping interest rates fails
South Dakota residents may face a confusing scenario at the polls in November: a ballot with two proposals about payday loan interest rates that could have divergent consequences for borrowers and businesses across the state.

May 24, 2016
PYMNTS
ALTERNATIVE FINANCES Pew Talks Payday Loans
Opponents of the practice note that, in its most vicious form, payday lending is an expensive predatory scourge on the class of borrowers it attracts, drawing them into a confusing and protracted cycle of debt.

May 24, 2016
JDSupra
Vermont AG Enters Largest Settlement With Online Payday Loan Processor
On May 20, the Vermont Attorney General announced a settlement with an Arizona processer of internet payday loans, resolving allegations that the company violated the state’s prohibition on unfair and deceptive acts in commerce.

May 23, 2016
Credit.com
How $2,500 in Payday Loans Turned Into $50K of Debt
Less than a week after Google said it was banning ads for payday loans, one man’s story is making national headlines.
Reprints: Yahoo Finance and St. Louis Post-Dispatch

May 23, 2016
Daily Kos
Open thread for night owls. Isaacs: ‘Fighting for an Alternative to Big Banks’
Payday loans, for example, have typical interest rates of 391 percent. There are approximately 22,000 payday loan stores in this country – that’s more than Wal-Mart and Starbucks combined.

May 23, 2016
Daily Kos
Democrats Can’t Unite Unless Wasserman Schultz Goes!
As a member of Congress, particularly egregious has been her support of the payday loan business, defying new regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that would rein in an industry that soaks desperate borrowers.
More news:
SALON | Debbie has to go, now, before it’s too late: The Democratic Party can’t unite with her in office

May 23, 2016
NewsOK
Missouri Man Paid $50,000 in Interest After Taking $2,500 in Payday Loans
Small payday loans are touted as quick, short-term access to money, but people like Elliott Clark of Kansas City, Missouri, call them “debt traps.”