But Wisconsin newspapers won’t stop kicking it around. The Oshkosh Northwestern won’t be happy until the entire payday lending industry is out of business.

The payday loan bill that passed last session provided weaker protections than were necessary in Wisconsin …

The Huffington Post examines abusive lending to the military.   If any lenders are violating the 36% rate cap and other terms set by the Talent Amendment in 2007, then shut them down.

That’s how this story describes Elizbeth Warren’s building of the CFPB: 

A well-spoken spokesman of the payday lending industry counters calls for Mississippi lenders to be shut down in an Associated Press report:

Ryan Harris, communications manager for Check Into Cash, said there is a “misunderstanding about the payday lending industry.” Harris took exception to the religious leaders’ call for lawmakers to put payday lenders out of business.

“Putting a legitimate business out of business doesn’t seem like a reasonable solution at all,” Harris said in a phone interview Monday. “It’s just going to take away jobs and take away that credit from the people who use it.”

The State Senate has made a proposal that would lower the cost of the most common payday loan by 10 percent. Why do people insist on killing jobs and taking away options for people?

This time it’s religious leaders and the NAACP calling for changes to payday lending. From The Clarion-Ledger:

Mississippi religious leaders called Monday for state lawmakers to let a law sunset that permits payday lenders to charge the equivalent of 572 percent interest.

There is no mention from these groups where people in need of short-term credit will go if they are successful in shutting down the payday lending industry.

The Anniston Star in Alabama  is the latest media outlet to regurgitate CRL’s false statements:

Another issue is the prevalence of the payday lending industry, says Charlene Crowell, of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Responsible Lending.

“There is no question that the concentration of payday lending in the South hurts people’s credit scores,” she said.

Crowell pointed out that people who are indebted to payday loan establishments frequently only pay the interest and roll over the principal, something that could eventually lead to lower credit scores.

All three things are on the agenda for the Lubbock City Council in Texas. At least the first two seem like a good use of the city’s times.

Council will also consider a non-binding resolution calling upon the legislature to put tighter regulation on payday loans.  The proposed resolution says that the payday loan profession exploits consumers.

If approved it would be sent to the Governor and lawmakers who represent the Lubbock area in Austin.  It calls for “… laws necessary and appropriate to prevent further exploitative payday lending practices…”

The Pundit would also like to congratulate the Idalou football team for winning the state title. Go Wildcats.

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch coverage of the “unbanked” study: 

The Washington U. study surveyed residents of low-income areas who don’t use banks and found that distrust in traditional banks’ fees can be a deterrent.

The study found that with payday lenders, many thought that they knew what the fees were going to be but were less certain about bank fees, North said.

Apparently, it’s a phrase Elizabeth Warren likes to use.

St. Louis Post Dispatch discusses the lack of banks in low-income areas: 

The lack of access to banking services in low-income neighborhoods has been a problem plaguing St. Louis and the rest of the country for decades, said Edward Lawrence, professor of finance at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

“It’s hard to have economic development without access to financial services,” he said. “In some of these areas, there’s a lot of money not being put anywhere. They keep it at home, and that’s a waste.”

The EHOC began to tackle this problem in 2009, when it began looking closely at local banks’ loans to minorities and in low-income areas. The EHOC also brought together more than a dozen other nonprofits, creating the St. Louis Equal Housing and Community Reinvestment Alliance, to begin analyzing banks’ lending histories.

In their analysis, the alliance looked at banks’ lending history through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which requires lending institutions to report public loan data. The EHOC’s four-member staff and the alliance members focused on the lending practices of banks up for review by federal regulators – either the Federal Reserve or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., depending on the type of bank – for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act. The CRA was passed by Congress in 1977 to prohibit red-lining, a practice in which banks once drew lines on a map where they would open branches and offer services, often leaving out low-income areas. Banks with assets of at least $275 million are reviewed for CRA compliance every two years.