Tag: pay day lending

Gov. Bill Ritter will sign three influential bills into law Tuesday, remaking the payday loan industry, creating greater transparency in campaign finance and tempering...

DENVER-- On Friday the state Senate passed a compromise version of Rep. Mark Ferrandino's payday loan bill, which seeks to protect consumers against high interest rates and fees. Lawmakers fearing job-loss forecasts put forward by short-term loan industry softened the strictest limits the original version of the bill would have put in place. Ferrandino is confident the amended bill will pass in the House and head to the governor's desk for signing this week.

Denver residents spent $26 million in 2006 at payday lenders and check cashing strip mall shops, according to city Council Member at Large Doug Linkhart. These short-term, high-interest, fee-ridden services pose a key barrier to building savings, assets and credit and destroy the possibility of maintaining personal monthly budgets. That's the recent conclusion of a task force Linkhart headed with Denver Office of Economic Development Executive Director André Pettigrew and funded by a grant from the national Bank on Cities campaign. Denver was one of eight cities selected to attack these problems based on a San Francisco pilot program.