(Cash Before Payday) NH Business: Nuggets of '07 - The Union Leader
The threat of thousands of foreclosures in the year to come has prompted five major New England banks to pool $125 million for mortgage conversions to fixed rates, but the natural forces of a collapsing market will wreak havoc on the state’s housing industry in 2008. Throughout the year, lawmakers in Concord argued whether to lower the interest-rate cap on payday loans — short-term loans made at high rates of interest to people who don’t have any other place to get funds. Right now, typical payday lenders charge $20 per $100 borrowed over a two-week term — which works out to an annual interest rate of more than 500 percent. Some in Concord want to cap the annual interest rate the lenders can charge at 36 percent — a rate the firms say will put them out of business. The panel did recommend two other bills — one that would cap interest at $15 per $100 borrowed over two weeks for payday loans, and $22 per $100 borrowed monthly on title loans. The last remaining smokestack in Berlin — eleven stories high and part of the old Fraser Papers mill — could once again roar into life if a biomass-fueled power plant is developed at the site. Learn more
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