Payday Pundit » international

Sound familiar?

Payday Pundit — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:49:24 +0000

In Britain, journalists are already starting the “credit union alternatives” stories.

Cracking down on the “tooth fairy”

Payday Pundit — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:27:29 +0000

That’s the name a British payday lender calls itself. A lender that has run afoul of the regulations. We agree with every word of this:

Ray Watson, the OFT’s Director of Consumer Credit, commented: “Payday lending provides access to credit for consumers who have limited choices. It is imperative that those who offer payday loans do so responsibly and in accordance with the law.

“For profit” microfinance

Payday Pundit — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:56:41 +0000

What kind of service does that sound like? Very interesting story at The Huffington Post:

Please watch the recent debate between the founder of the Not for Profit Grameen Foundation, Alex Counts, and the founder of the once Not for Profit organization, Indian SKS Microfinance, Vikram Akula. SKS became a For Profit company in 2005 and went public in 2010 with an IPO raising $358 Million.

Both focused on Microfinance, loaning to the world’s “poor”. The Grameen Foundation’s fund manages $25 million for MFIs around the world and includes a technology focus as well. Both Alex Counts and Vikram Akula worked with Muhammad Yunus and the original Grameen Bank lending model.

The for profit architecture raises a disturbing question at this turning point in Microfinance.

The L word

Payday Pundit — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:54:14 +0000

“Loansharking” has been injected into the discussion in Britain. Maybe Center for Responsible Lending opened a branch there.

Microlending controversy

Payday Pundit — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:15:31 +0000

The Wall Street Journal says there is a “major crisis” in India’s microlending system. It seems to me that India needs strict regulations similar to payday lending regulations in states.

The debate in the U.K.

Payday Pundit — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:44:43 +0000

There are stories every day about this. From the Left-wing Guardian newspaper:

Furthermore, in the bonfire of quangos two organisations that championed the rights of the financially excluded are to be scrapped. These are Consumer Focus, which recently highlighted the rapid growth of payday lending in the UK and launched a super-complaint against the doorstep lending industry; and the Office of Fair Trading, which revealed that the poor were being overcharged by £500m in excessive interest by doorstep lenders due to a lack of competition.

I thought I had a good grasp of English, but I’m having trouble with this paragraph. In any case, it seems payday lending is booming in Britain.

Thriving in NWT

Payday Pundit — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:39:24 +0000

In an unregulated environment. From the story:

Payday loan companies have found a profitable new home in the Northwest Territories, but some people have encountered problems with the small short-term loans that come with sky-high interest rates.

The payday loan industry is not regulated in the N.W.T., which has left some borrowers facing annual interest rates far above the Criminal Code limit of 60 per cent.

I’m guessing the NWT will eventually develop the consumer protections found in other provinces.

Name calling in Britain

Payday Pundit — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:52:02 +0000

Center for Responsible Lending must have opened an office there. From the story:

More than 100 MPs have backed a campaign calling for the Government to end “legal loan sharking”, it has been revealed.

Around 107 MPs from all major parties signed an Early Day Motion calling for a cap to be put on the interest charged on some of the most expensive forms of credit.

The campaign, which is being organised by political pressure group Compass, said that although the Government has pledged to give regulators new powers to define and ban excessive interest rates on credit and store cards, it is failing to tackle the “much more pernicious” high cost credit sector.

There are 650 Members of Parliament, so I don’t think this is going anywhere.

Down under

Payday Pundit — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:02:45 +0000

The Aussies are concerned about the rapid growth of “unregulated” payday lenders.

Say this with an English accent

Payday Pundit — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:57:57 +0000

From the story:

High street lenders have been accused of becoming less and less likely to help their customers with their short term finance needs, leaving Brits to rely on payday lenders and pawnbrokers to keep debt spirals at bay.

A payday loan company, speed-e-loans.com, has made the accusation, with CEO Gary Miller-Cheevers calling the rise of his industry ‘shocking’.

I think this British payday loan executive is “shocked” only in the cynical sense. He just wanted an opportunity to stick it to banks.