payday lending

New Economy Project writes to register its vehement opposition to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s proposed “true lender” rule. In one fell swoop, the proposal would effectively obliterate New York’s longstanding usury laws and legalize, for the first time in our state’s history, predatory payday lending. The proposed rule is consistent with the Trump administration’s broader efforts to dismantle critical protections and benefit corporate interests–in this instance, facilitating the systematic extraction of wealth from people and communities.

New York has successfully fought to keep predatory payday lending out of our state, as a matter of racial and economic justice. Now, the Trump administration is seeking to gut New York’s longstanding consumer protection laws, and open the door to high-cost lenders that exploit people who are struggling financially.

Last night, Representatives Gregory Meeks (D-NY-5) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY-3) broke with the rest of the state’s Democrats and joined New York’s Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives in voting to pass a bill, H.R. 3299, that would allow lenders to launder loans through banks to override limits in New York and other states on high-cost loans, potentially paving the way for loans of up to 300 percent APR in states where those rates are prohibited.

This episode, we focus on the payday lending industry’s most recent attempt to legalize high-cost predatory lending in New York. We feature a conversation with New York State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou about the importance of standing up for strong consumer protections as a matter of racial and economic justice. We also sit down with New Economy Project’s Campaigns Director, Andy Morrison, to discuss a vision for financial justice for New York City’s communities.