Unfortunately, from this story, it’s hard to tell what:

Minnesota lawmakers say a loophole in state law is allowing lenders to take money away from people who want an advance on their paycheck.

Sen. Kevin Dahle of Northfield and Rep. Jim Davnie of Minneapolis are due to discuss legislation Wednesday to change payday lending practices.

From The Hill newspaper:

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is not expected until next week to unveil legislation overhauling the nation’s financial system.

Senate aides and industry lobbyists said the legislation, which had been expected this week, would likely be unveiled next week. Dodd and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a freshman senator, have been attempting to craft a bipartisan compromise bill over the past few weeks.

I’m holding my breath.

Politico says Senator Chris Dodd is walking a high wire on financial reform.

Regarding the “banks getting into PDL” post below:

“at annual rates of 120 percent if repaid in 30 days”

That’s a big “IF”. You have to be on direct deposit to get it and they take their money first when your deposit hits. If you borrow the money on Wednesday and get your pay direct deposited on Friday and they take their money what does that do to the APR? 1,825%?

Some of these banks have already been doing this for at least year or two.

From the Washington Post:

Lending by the banking industry fell by $587 billion, or 7.5 percent, in 2009, the largest annual decline since the 1940s, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported Tuesday.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said that some small banks have dialed back on lending because of financial weakness, a problem the Obama administration aims to address with a proposal to pump $30 billion in new federal aid into community banks. But Bair said that the vast majority of the decline was the result of lending cutbacks by the largest banks.

Payday lenders will issue more than $40 billion worth of credit this year.

PDLindustrynews.com calls the Bloomberg story posted below a “bombshell.”

We missed this from yesterday:

Under the new Loans Regulation, payday loan companies in Alberta will now only be able to charge a maximum of $23 for every $100 borrowed.

Though the Alberta government introduced the new rules last year, the maximum rate limit required federal approval before coming into effect.

“Payday lenders now have very clear rules to follow that give borrowers an accurate picture of how much a loan will cost and limits how much they can be charged,” said Service Alberta Minister Heather Klimchuk in a statement. “The federal government’s approval of the maximum cost of borrowing is the final piece of the regulation that provides consumers with strong protection.”

It’s neither here nor there, but Canadians are having a bad winter Olympics.   The red, white and blue is cleaning up.

Check ‘n Go blog continues its series.

More Treasury officials pushing the CFPA. This week, we’ll see the pushback when Senator Shelby introduces his CFPA-free financial reform bill.

The AARP says seniors overwhelmingly support financial reform.  From that, they extrapolate that this translates into support for the CFPA.

One thing the Payday Pundit learned from his years in politics and campaigns; if you put the word “reform” in any survey, people are for it.