Payday lenders can expect regulation soon

[FreakinDJ]

Payday lending is one of the few growth areas in financial services, but it's likely to come under pressure now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has set its sights on the industry.

In one of his first public appearances, the bureau's recently appointed director, Richard Cordray, chaired a hearing on payday lending in a packed ballroom in Birmingham, Ala., Thursday. Birmingham has so many payday lenders - 93 by one count - that the City Council last month imposed a six-month moratorium on new ones opening.

Also on Thursday, the bureau published guidelines it will use to examine whether payday lenders, both banks and nonbanks, are complying with consumer financial laws.

"Fundamentally, I believe regulation is coming," says FBR Capital Markets analyst Edward Mills, who attended the hearing. "The CFPB has clearly demonstrated that they mean business. They want to show they are doing things that are meaningful to the average consumer. I think they consider reforms to payday loans low-hanging fruit."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/21/BU9B1MS93V.DTL#ixzz1kCX8jzGI

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I've never been in a position

Where vie had to use one - but Im happy to see them getting close scrutiny.

[FreakinDJ]

2. annual percentage rate of roughly 460% on a two-week loan

[JustAnotherGen]

4. Whoa

Yeah - that's slavery - not a loan.

[etherealtruth]

3. "thank God" (this is used as an exclamamation not a religious proclamation)

These vultures have preyed upon the poor for years