Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair is pushing back against key pillars of the Obama administration’s financial overhaul plan, saying they wouldn’t survive in Congress and calling her own alternatives more viable.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Bair said Congress won’t approve two major parts of the package: Expanding the Federal Reserve’s authority to regulate the largest financial companies and giving a proposed new consumer protection agency examination and enforcement powers over banks.

New laws that cut down on the number of payday loans borrowers can get have drastically reduced the number of the short-term, high-interest loans issued in Virginia.

Last year, Virginia’s payday lenders made nearly 3.4 million payday loans, or about 281,000 each month. Through the end of May, lenders had issued 226,807 loans, an average of 45,000 per month _ an 84 percent decline, according to the Bureau of Financial Institutions.

A move to restrict payday lending appears headed for failure yet again in South Carolina.
Lawmakers said Wednesday the chances of them passing a compromise this year are slim, with just four days left on the legislative calendar.
   
The House passed a measure earlier this year that industry opponents criticized as too weak. The Senate passed a stronger version last year but hasn’t been able to pass anything this year.  The bill currently before the Senate calls for a two-day waiting period and a loan limit of $500 with no link to income.

The good news is that there are only four day left on the legislative calendar.  That means only two dozen more blog posts on South Carolina.   

Consumers who are paying more in interest because they have fallen behind on their credit-card bills could regain their older, lower rates if they pay their bills on time for six months, under a compromise proposal reached by senators seeking changes in laws governing the credit card industry.

The Senate proposal was brokered between Republicans, who say lenders should be able to take into account a person’s behavior, and Democrats, who contend that the practice of hiking rates on past balances prevents consumers from climbing out of debt.

The agreement was included as part of a broader package on credit card reform, announced Monday by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The bill was expected to pass this week with President Barack Obama’s support.

Dodd had originally proposed an outright ban on retroactive rate increases. But without Republican support, his bill was considered unlikely to overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate.

The banks are still very powerful on the Hill.

‘If they were getting it {a short-term loan} anywhere else, payday lenders wouldn’t be opening as many stores,” said Steven Schlein, a spokesman for the association.

He said the proposed 36-percent cap in effect would outlaw payday loans.

”Which leaves consumers with what?” he said. ”No one else except for pawn shops, where you need to use collateral is going to make them a $300 loan.”

Not that we don’t love pawnshops.