Payday Pundit » Columbus Business First

They’re beginning to get it

Payday Pundit — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:44:15 +0000

This balanced Columbus Business First story explains the issue in Ohio as being a question of access to credit:

While advocates and opponents have been arguing over payday lending for the past year, broader issues related to credit have come front and center only recently when the mortgage crisis seized the financial services industry.

That backdrop has emboldened payday lending supporters to question the wisdom of cutting off a funding source. They say payday lending is a critical source of emergency cash, particularly during a time of economic duress.

“This credit crisis is pushing a lot of people to the brink, and payday loans may help bridge their difficulties for a little while to help them avoid foreclosure,” said Victor Stango, associate professor of economics at the University of California-Davis who has studied payday lending. “This might be the worst time to deny people access to that high-interest credit.”

Ohio showdown on Friday

Payday Pundit — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:51:55 +0000

A hearing on the signature gathering issue has been scheduled. From the Columbus Dispatch story:

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has tapped a well-known Columbus attorney to decide whether to recommend that a number of payday lending signatures should be tossed out for a paperwork violation.

The Yes on 5 committee, which is fighting a proposed referendum by the payday industry that seeks to partially overturn tough, new regulations on the short-term lenders, is arguing that California-based Arno did not properly file what is known as a Form 15. Ohio law requires that anyone who is getting paid to supervise or organize a signature-gathering effort for a statewide referendum must file the form. Arno collected some of the names for the referendum effort, which needs 241,366 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Karl Schneider, a partner in the firm of Maguire & Schneider, has scheduled a hearing for Friday morning, when he will listen to arguments by the Yes on Issue 5 committee as to why signatures collected by Arno Political Consultants should be invalidated.

The Payday Pundit will talk to people in Ohio and post more on Tuesday about what this all means.

Business First of Columbus: Senate passes payday lending bill

Payday Pundit — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34:13 +0000

The article quotes CFSA president D. Lynn DeVault, “Operating under H.B. 545 is not economically feasible. Our member companies say they expect stores to close and jobs to be lost.”