House Passes Sham Payday Lending Bill
Submitted by .Sean on April 13, 2011 - 11:29am
The Missouri House approved legislation today handled by Reps. Ellen Brandom (R-Lobbyists) and Don Wells (R-Kwik Kash) by a 99-57 vote today. The Democratic caucus stood together against the sham bill, and even had the support of several Republicans: Paul Fitzwater, Lindell Shumake and Nick Marshall.
The Star's Barb Shelly sums up the proposal here:
As written, it does almost nothing to diminish Missouri’s status as one of the nation’s most friendly states for payday lenders.
It lowers the cap on the annual percentage rate on a loan to 1,564 from 1,950 — a meaningless dip because the average short-term borrower in Missouri now pays an annual percentage rate of 444 percent. And at 1,564 Missouri’s APR would remain the nation’s highest.
