Payday Pundit

From the Associated Press: 
The payday loan industry, which lost a ballot fight to overturn tough restrictions on the interest rates it can charge costumers, is searching for other ways to do business in Ohio as consumer advocates worry that lenders are finding a way around the election results.
Lenders are focusing more on services such as […]

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An in depth and balanced piece in Sunday’ New York Times Magazine.   It looks at the checking cashing/payday lending phenomenon through the eyes on one businessman, Tom Nix, of Southern California.  From the piece: 
Today’s financial crisis has many origins. But here’s one cause that is often overlooked: Traditional bankers badly misread the market for financial services in […]

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But they will be changing their service.  According to this story: 
Judy Powers, director of communications for Check Into Cash in Cleveland, Tenn., said Check Into Cash has started making the microloans in Ohio, charging a documentation fee on loans that remain at the new interest rate cap of 28 percent.
“We’re really disappointed in the vote, […]

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That’s what Lawrence Meyers calls the Center for Responsible Lending in the Bloggernewsnetwork piece:
 {Center for Responsible Lending} parade{s)}around ridiculous studies that have flawed data collection techniques, draw false conclusions from this flawed data, then try to snooker unsuspecting readers that this smoke-and-mirrors job supports their assertion. Just to reiterate, the CRL has its own loan […]

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From today’s Washington Times: 
But in 1995, the Treasury Department issued new CRA regulations that would make it much more difficult for banks to get a satisfactory CRA rating. These institutions would have to demonstrate that they were investing more money in poor, higher-risk neighborhoods if they wanted federal approval to merge. Much of that money […]

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Veritec Solutions, the government contractor that monitors payday lending transactions in several states, had this to say about the Center for Responsible Lending’s latest lies:
“The Center for Responsible Lending (’CRL’) in their September 16, 2008 CRL Report ‘High Cost Payday Lending Traps Arizona Borrowers’ misinterprets statistics published by Veritec as part of our contractual agreements […]

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Here’s a very interesting essay that discusses how payday loans work, why they’re a great alternative to bank overdraft protection, and why critics are wrong.   craig-parr-com220-essay 

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John Michael Spinelli thinks new laws need to be enacted to change the way Ohio’s signature gathering works: 
Last week saw payday lenders capitulated to their opponents, agreeing to subtract 13,000 signatures from the 422,000 handed in in late August. Those forfeited signatures came about because petitions circulated by a California company that didn’t file required […]

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According to this story it’s a “community group.”  (Which community is that since it has offices all over the country?) 
But this one says it’s a “consumer group.”
But, its own news release calls it a “nonprofit, nonpartisan, research and policy organization.”
Here’s a more accurate description:   CRL is a multi-million dollar advocacy group, backed by the SELF-HELP Credit Union, with a […]

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I don’t know why we need experts at the Treasury Department, universities or Wall Street looking for solutions to the financial crisis.  Center for Responsble Lending has the answer to everything:  Cap interest rates at 36 percent.  
In fact, if your read CRL’s laundry list of solutions it boils down to “no more lending money.” 

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