payday lending

When states from New Mexico to Illinois passed payday reform laws over the past few years, it seemed as if the movement to curb short-term loans with interest rates that sometimes reached 400 percent or more was gaining steam. In Ohio and Arizona, voters even took to the polls to approve the rate caps on payday lenders, regardless of threats that the industry would close its doors if it had to lend money at 36 percent interest or less.

Over 200,000 Michigan families were behind on their mortgage payments as of June, and more than 300,000 are expected to lose their homes to foreclosure between now and 2012, according to a new report produced by the Center for Responsible Lending.

WASHINGTON — Not a single state has authorized payday lending since Michigan did so in 2005. But elsewhere in the country, states are taking decisive action to rein in the industry, which is organizing for fights in state capitals and in Washington, D.C.