Ohio mayors endorse cap on payday lending rates - Port Clinton News Herald
COLUMBUS Six of Ohio’s big-city mayors have pledged support of a crackdown on payday lending practices, citing an explosion in the growth of payday stores when families are facing mounting economic challenges. The mayors of Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron and Dayton support a cap on lending rates charged by payday lenders. A bill before the Ohio Legislature supported by the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending would cap the annual percentage rate at 36 percent, and would prohibit lenders from giving one customer more than six loans each year. Currently, payday lenders charge an average annual rate of 391 percent and give more than seven loans a year to the average customer, a report released last year by the coalition found. The mayors, led by Columbus’ Michael Coleman, came out in favor of the rate cap after a recent report found that the number of payday lending stores in Ohio has seen a 14-fold increase since 1996. The home foreclosure crisis, and the resulting scrutiny that has been placed on lenders who provided mortgages to people with no ability to pay for them, has encouraged state lawmakers to look at the payday lending business model, said Bill Faith, a lobbyist for the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending. Learn more
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