News from the North
January 8, 2009 | industry, international, regulation | Comments (0)The Manitoba government is taking time from watching hockey to respond to a court decision on payday lending regulations. From the article:
Manitoba’s provincial government moved yesterday to carry on with the planned regulation of payday loan rates, hopeful it will render a court challenge to be essentially moot.
Manitoba’s Court of Appeal recently agreed to allow The Cash Store to challenge the authority of the provincial Public Utilities Board to cap the rates payday lenders could charge their customers.
The government had asked the PUB to look at the rates being charged and come up with regulated rates that would be fair. The PUB ordered last April the maximum would be 17% on the first $500, 15% on the next $500 and 6% on loans over $1,000.
But now that The Cash Store has won the right to formally challenge the PUB’s authority to do that, Finance Minister Greg Selinger said he decided yesterday the government will change the rules and regulate the rates itself. He will introduce legislation this spring that allows that change.
The Payday Pundit loves the acronym for Public Utilities Board: PUB. We once said Canadians don’t have a sense of humor, but we take it back.
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