Well, well, well.
The anonymous, shadowy, out-of-state corporations who some speculated were funding anti-payday reform groups Stand Up Missouri and Missourians for Equal Credit Opportunity have emerged from the shadows - and have the spotlight right on them.
Well, at least one of them has.
Stand Up Missouri's website claims it "does not represent payday lending or payday interests." Missourians for Equal Credit Opportunity recently "refused to say" if they are funded by payday lenders when asked by Fox 4 in Kansas City.
But the Kansas City Star recently lifted up a report from QC Holdings that lays it all out there. Who is QC Holdings? As you can see in this "annual filing", QC Holdings (AKA "Quik Cash") operates 101 payday loan branches in Missouri, by far more than any other state. Next in line is California, with 75. This is even more suspicious when you consider Missouri's population is about 6 million, compared to California's 37.5 million.
From the aforementioned annual filing:
In Missouri, there is currently an effort to place a voter initiative on the statewide ballot in November 2012, which ballot initiative is intended to preclude any consumer lending in the state with an annual rate in excess of 36%. We have already spent substantial amounts opposing the efforts to place this initiative on the ballot. If the initiative obtains the required signatures and otherwise meets the legal requirements to place the initiative on the Missouri ballot for November 2012, we will spend substantial additional amounts to defeat the proposal…
