They have Cathy Brennan and other hired legal goons shilling for them.
From Mother Jones: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/payday-lending-state-laws
Need money fast? Hope you don’t mind an annual interest rate of nearly 700 percent.
By Paul Kiel
Wed Aug. 7, 2013
This story first appeared on the ProPublica website and in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
In 2008, payday lenders suffered a major defeat when the Ohio legislature banned high-cost loans. That same year, they lost again when they dumped more than $20 million into an effort to roll back the law: The public voted against it by nearly two-to-one.
But five years later, hundreds of payday loan stores still operate in Ohio, charging annual rates that can approach 700 percent.
It’s just one example of the industry’s resilience. In state after state where lenders have confronted unwanted regulation, they have found ways to continue to deliver high-cost loans.
Sometimes, as in Ohio, lenders have exploited loopholes in the law. But more often, they have reacted to laws targeted at one type of high-cost loan by churning out other products that feature triple-digit annual rates.
To be sure, there are states that have successfully banned high-cost lenders. Today Arkansas is an island, surrounded by six other states where ads scream “Cash!” and high-cost lenders dot the strip malls. Arkansas’ constitution caps non-bank rates at 17 percent.
But even there, the industry managed to operate for nearly a decade until the state Supreme Court finally declared those loans usurious in 2008.
The state-by-state skirmishes are crucial, because high-cost lenders operate primarily under state law. On the federal level, the recently formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can address “unfair, deceptive or abusive practices,” said a spokeswoman. But the agency is prohibited from capping interest rates.
In Ohio, the lenders continue to offer payday loans via loopholes in laws written to regulate far different companies — mortgage lenders and credit repair organizations. The latter peddle their services to people struggling with debt, but they can charge unrestricted fees for helping consumers obtain new loans into which borrowers can consolidate their debt.
Continue reading at: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/payday-lending-state-laws
