payday lending

And the sharks are smelling blood in the water:

A bill that would bring back payday lending to North Carolina has attracted a powerful new co-sponsor: Senate Rules Committee chairman Tom Apodaca. The support of Apodaca, R-Hendersonville, added to the heavyweight lobbyists that the industry has retained, makes it a bill to be reckoned with.

Regions Financial Corp. CEO Grayson Hall told shareholders in 2011 that Alabama's largest bank isn't recovering from the economic downturn as rapidly as he would've liked because of an outbreak of tornadoes and because the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act increased oversight of banks, and other measures placed strict new rules on credit card practices and some fees.

So the bank has turned to other, still legal, forms of squeezing customers.

Dear Congressman Miller,
I know that you often lurk here, in addition to posting. I also know that you are very busy. Thankfully, one of those things you are apparently busy with is pay day lending, which we have often talked about on this site.

I just have one small request. Please make sure that any bills on these dont include protections for companies like H&R Block. I know that local, individual businesses account for the majorities of these loans, but we need to make sure that no one else is going to slip in through the cracks.

If this was a Republican congress passing this bill special provisions would be put in to protect big national firms that can lobby. Strike that. They would be put in to protect the money flowing to legislators. Please renew our faith in congress just a little and stop all companies from taking part in these despicable practices.