Targeting payday predators

Targeting payday predators. Byline: The Register-Guard    U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley Jeff Merkley b. 1956 in Myrtle Creek, Oregon is the Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. Merkley, a Democrat, represents House District 47, located in eastern Multnomah County within the Portland city limits. has no love for payday lenders. When he was speaker of Oregon's House of Representatives in 2008, Merkley led the charge against the high-interest-rate lenders, sponsoring legislation that capped interest rates on consumer loans and other bills that transformed Oregon from one of the most payday-loan-friendly states in the nation to one of the most strictly regulated. When a chain of payday loan A payday loan or paycheck advance is a small, short-term loan that is intended to cover a borrower's expenses until his or her next payday. Typical loans are between $100 and $1500, on a two-week term and have interest rates in the range of 390 percent to 900 percent stores shut down in Oregon in 2008, Merkley went so far as to toast its demise with sparkling apple juice at a shopping mall, declaring that payday lenders had been "stripping wealth from Oregonians" and that "we're here to say they're leaving the state and we're happy about it," he said. After he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Merkley said he intended to pursue federal legislation targeting payday lenders. Earlier this year he made good on that promise, introducing a bill aimed at reining in payday lenders who have set up online operations in states that have not cracked down on them or in distant locations such as Belize or the West Indies West Indies, archipelago, between North and South America, curving c.2,500 mi 4,020 km from Florida to the coast of Venezuela and separating the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean. .    The Stopping Abuse and Fraud in Electronic Lending Act, which Merkley co-sponsored with Sens. Tom Udall Thomas Stewart Udall usually called Tom Udall born May 18, 1948 is an American politician who has represented New Mexico's At-large congressional district as a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1999. Tom Udall was born in Tucson, Arizona. , D-N.M., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would target the most abusive practices of the online payday lending industry. The bill would ensure that consumers have control over their bank accounts, bar banks from giving payday lenders access to consumers' accounts and require all lenders, including banks, to abide by To stand to; to adhere; to maintain. See also: Abide state rules on payday lending. The legislation would ban "lead generators" - websites that advertise themselves as payday lenders but actually collect loan applications and auction them to payday lenders. Other provisions target offshore and rogue online payday operations that make loans in violation of state laws. Merkley is right to target predatory lenders who have a rat-like propensity for survival. Even though states across the country have imposed caps on interest rates and fees and Congress has restricted payday lenders from targeting military members, payday lenders keep finding new ways to stay in business. In recent years, many payday lenders have turned to online operations. The Pew Charitable Trusts Pew Charitable Trusts, philanthropic foundation established 1948 by the children of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew 1886–1963 of Philadelphia to provide funds for "general religious, charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes. estimate 3 million Americans obtained Internet payday loans in 2010. Internet loans are on a trajectory to make up 60 percent of the total payday loans by 2016, up from about 35 percent in 2011. As of 2011, the volume of online payday loans was $13 billion, a 120 percent increase from 2006.     Merkley took on the rapacious payday loan industry in Oregon, and now he's doing the same at the national level. Federal lawmakers should approve Merkley's bill and join him in toasting the hardships it would impose on a hugely lucrative industry that makes money by preying on the nation's poorest and most economically vulnerable citizens. Find out more on instant pay day loans