Stop Payday Lending Abuse Initiative Gains Momentum With Resolution in El Paso, Launch of New Web Site

PRNewswire
March 16, 2010

City councilors in El Paso, Texas, recently approved a resolution that urges the governor and state lawmakers to end usurious lending and force payday loan outlets to abide by the same standards as licensed consumer lenders. Other cities have imposed moratoriums on new payday lending stores or passed new zoning laws that require payday businesses to obtain special permits to expand. A new Web site rolled out by AARP and other consumer groups, www.stoppaydayabuse.org, also is appealing to legislators to close the loophole in state law that makes it difficult for cash-strapped consumers to break out of the cycle of debt caused by payday loans and their high interest rates. That loophole allows fast-cash and car-title lenders to charge 500 percent interest or more by simply setting themselves up as "credit service organizations" that are not subject to regulatory oversight. "We hope that these efforts at the local level will spread like wildfire in 2010 and signal to the Texas Legislature that Texans are serious about ending these abuses," remarked AARP Texas director Bob Jackson.
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