First this Boston Globe columnist lists reasons for Elizabeth Warren to run for Senate.  Now he list reasons she shouldn’t.

The Mississippi bill regarding payday lending will die if the state House and Senate can’t agree:

“It’s a work in progress,” House Banking Committee Chairman George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, said Friday, after the Senate passed House Bill 455 in a 33-13 vote. “Unless there’s some type of real consensus, it may be best to leave it alone this year.”

The state law enabling payday lending expires in 2012.

An AARP representative argues for payday lending reform in The El Paso Times. The author uses the old cliche of payday lenders “preying” on customers, but then says consumers seek out lenders.

These loan businesses are booming, buoyed by the fact that middle-class households are increasingly living paycheck-to-paycheck. A slip here or there and they too find themselves knocking on lenders’ doors.

Whose door should they knock on? I guess they could get an AARP credit card if they qualify and don’t mind paying the myriad of credit card fees. Hmmm … no mention of that.

The Clarion-Ledger continues cheerleading for more reforms to the payday lending industry, saying the Senate should be shamed for lowering the cost of a $300 loan. How that’s a bad thing isn’t explained.

Under the Senate version, consumers would have at least 28 days to pay on loans from $301 to $500. On loans of $300 or less, the $21.95 fee would be reduced to $20, and consumers would have up to 21 days to pay.

 Under the House version, consumers would have at least 28 days to pay on loans from $201 to $500. On loans of $200 or less, the $21.95 fee would be reduced to $20, and consumers would have up to 21 days to pay.

The average payday loan in Mississippi is $287

Consumers advocates want a permanent CFPB director named.  From the story:

“The president should nominate and the Senate should confirm a qualified director of the bureau as soon as possible,” Americans for Financial Reform said in a report released Friday. The group cited Ms. Warren as “certainly one potential nominee” who was well qualified.

Several other names were floated last summer, including Michael Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary; Allen Fishbein, an official at the Federal Reserve who has focused on consumer issues; and Ellen Seidman, a former director of the Office of Thrift Supervision.

Although the director’s job remains open, the bureau has filled other important positions on its 100-person plus roster.

There is a lot of work yet to be done on the Mississippi bill, according to The Associated Press. There must be a Senate vote, and then the House and Senate must come together on differences in their respective drafts of the bill. And then there is one more step:

The two chambers must agree on a single version. Gov. Haley Barbour says he’s waiting to see what lawmakers send him before deciding whether he’ll sign it.

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports on the Mississippi Senate Banking Committee:

The committee’s bill tweaks the House version passed earlier this week. State Sen. J. Walter Michel, D-Jackson, proposed an amendment to enable consumers to borrow up to $300 with reduced fees, rather than $200 under the House version.

FiSCA, the check cashers association, made a big move.  From the story: 

After more than 20 years in Hackensack, N.J., Financial Service Centers of America, a trade association representing check-cashing stores and payday lenders, packed up its headquarters in December and moved to a more strategic location: Washington, D.C.

The offices of the group known as FiSCA are now just two blocks from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the nascent federal regulator created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to oversee a broad array of financial firms, including those such as Dollar Financial and ACE Cash Express that offer quick cash at annual interest rates as high as 400 percent.

FTC and CFPB will not overlap.  From Reuters:

The CFPB will issue rules — as yet unspecified — regulating financial products like credit cards and mortgages. The FTC enforces laws against unfair or deceptive practices in lending, loan servicing, debt collection and related areas.

“My sense is that your fears will turn out to be unfounded,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in remarks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“My strong sense is that neither agency will have the time to double team legitimate businesses,” he said.

Instead, Leibowitz said, the agency would work to “weed out the crooks and the scam artists.”

In response to the post below titled “confused”:

This is a false statement! The rules that were enacted have been implemented since Jan 1. Where the problem comes into play is that lawmakers are still deciding on whether to change what they approved or not! The rules that were approved and we are operating under may not be the same rules that we are forced to abide by after they finally have a meeting to approved what the Governor signed. At this point, most of the lenders are dual licensed with a loan license and a PDL license to ensure that they can stay in business. This allowed the state to double their fee revenue from our industry.