Compromise payday loan bill advances

Monday, February 18, 2008

It managed to kill Friday a bill that would have forced payday lenders to divulge far more data than they want about their loans that average 521 percent interest here, and instead persuaded a committee to endorse what critics say is a tepid alternative.

The Senate Business and Labor Committee voted 5-2 to kill SB216, sponsored by Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights. But it unanimously passed SB83 by Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley.

Bell's bill would have required payday loan stores to provide more than a dozen categories of information each year, ranging from the number of loans made to what interest rates are charged, how long loans are outstanding, how often they are "rolled over," how many separate loans individuals take, and how many loans default.

Bell said it was patterned after data collected for years by Colorado. He said it would help lawmakers collect solid industry-wide data to end an ongoing he-said, she-said battles about whether payday lenders hurt or help the poor.

But Cort Walker, spokesman for the the payday lending industry's Utah Consumer Lending Association, said the proposed reporting was too onerous, required too much proprietary information, and is not needed because "we have virtually no complaints" by consumers to state regulators.

Mayne said her bill is a compromise. It requires only a few categories of disclosure, such as the average amount of loans, average time before loans are paid, minimum and maximum interest rates charged, and how many loans are rescinded within 24 hours as allowed by state law. It is supported by payday lenders and state regulators.

But Linda Hilton, a payday loan critic and director of the Coalition for Religious Communities, said, "It's an industry sympathetic bill. It's essentially useless."

Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, urged the committee to pass only Mayne's bill, saying it was a "consensus bill" supported by all affected groups and worked out over many months by a legislative interim work group.

But consumer groups, critics and Bell cried foul, saying the working group originally proposed a bill much closer to Bell's — which payday lenders opposed. They said consumer groups and advocates for the poor were then left out of subsequent talks that led to Mayne's softer bill.

Niederhauser then acknowledged that an early bill did call for 15 categories of disclosure recommended by regulators rather than the five in Mayne's bill, but said, "It was not a consensus ... so we worked with the industry" on what became Mayne's bill.

Bell also complained about Walker's assertion that the industry has virtually no complaints, noting that the Deseret Morning News found earlier this month that payday lenders sued nearly 27,000 Utahns for default since 2005 — and that 51 percent of all small claims suits along the Wasatch Front come from payday lenders.

He said the industry asserts, "No complaints. No abuse, and no data to show abuse. Here is a bill to get the data" to show whether abuse exists, Bell said. "Some I have heard say this is the worst, slimiest industry, others say it helps the poor. Who knows what is true" without more data?

Mayne, however, said while her bill would collect less data, she said it is what regulators said it the most valuable — and is all that could likely pass. "It's not what everyone wants," she said. "It is a step forward."

The payday lenders' success Friday comes after it donated $30,200 combined to 37 legislators last year (a non-election year). That was more than banks or credit unions donated that year.

Source: http://deseretnews.com