Payday loan industry fights regulation

The heavyweight fight between payday lenders and their opponents may be coming to an end after Delegate R. Lee Ware Jr., R-Powhatan, decided to remove his revised legislative proposal.

Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Springfield, is chief patron of the one remaining payday bill left out of 13 different versions of similar proposed legislation.

Ware’s bill would have created a way for payday lenders to track payday loans of potential customers to determine whether an applicant is eligible for the loan. Saslaw’s bill is nearly identical to Ware’s.

“(Payday lenders’) business plan hinges on these repeat borrowers who keep racking up these fees,” Delegate Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, said. “They are not in the public good. To me, they are making things worse for certain people.”

McClellan proposed a bill that called for a cap on annual interest rates. The bill would have lowered the interest rate to 36 percent, but was tabled in House of Delegates Commerce and Labor Committee.

Payday loans allow a borrower to write a check for the amount to be borrowed, plus a fee. The lender holds the check until the customer’s next payday, when the borrower can either pay off the loan or the lender cashes the check.

Delegate Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, originally introduced the Payday Loan Act in 1999. He said he now regrets his previous actions.

“[People] end up paying more in interest than the money they borrowed,” Morgan said. “They get into a debt spiral and many of them end up in bankruptcy because they can’t dig out.”

“I hope they repeal it, but I doubt that will happen,” Morgan said in reference to SB 1014 proposed by Saslaw.

Employees of payday lenders are concerned as well. Any change legislated in the assembly would have a negative effect on business.

“Standardizing payday lenders so that we all have the same guidelines and have to answer to one another will create competition,” a payday loan employee said.

Organizations launched Web site campaigns on both sides of the issue.

Mymoneymydecision.com is against regulation of the payday loan industry.

The Web site provides a pre-written letter that a visitor can send to Gov. Tim Kaine or General Assembly lawmakers emphasizing the need for these types of loans.

Helen O’Beirne is the Responsible Lending Coordinator for the Virginia Partnership to Encourage Responsible Lending. Several weeks ago, O’Beirne testified before the House Labor and Commerce Committee in a room packed with payday lending employees.

“There is absolutely no reason to legalize loan sharks to protect jobs and the economic health of our community.” O’Beirne said.

According to VirginiaFairLoans.org, as of August 2006, there are three payday loan shops for every Starbucks in Virginia.