Wisconsin Legislators Take Another Crack at Payday Loan Law
By John MitsudaPayday Loan Writer
Madison, WI — Lawmakers will make another attempt to beef up regulation of Wisconsin's growing payday loan industry, a state official said Thursday.
A Republican bill that would have imposed limits on payday lending was vetoed last year by Gov. Jim Doyle, who contended the legislation was too weak. But state Rep. Jean Hundertmark (R-Clintonville), chairwoman of the Assembly's Committee on Financial Institutions, said she hopes to craft a new bill that will win the governor's signature.
With that goal, Hundertmark held a hearing at the Capitol on Thursday in which invited industry and government representatives spelled out the merits and drawbacks of payday lenders. The number of no faxing payday loan agencies has grown from 64 in 1996 to 393 now.
Some of those concerned that payday lenders take advantage of needy consumers suggested the state impose a fee cap or interest-rate limit on loans. They'd also like to restrict the number of times a loan can be extended, or rolled over, by paying another fee.
Kathryn Carlson, executive assistant for the Department of Financial Institutions, said the state should consider setting up an electronic monitoring system to enforce limits on the number of loans any consumer could have at one time. She said that because payday loans, which in theory are short-term loans to tide people over until their next payday, are being rolled over for months by many customers, they need more regulation than they now get from the state.
April 11th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
[…] Efforts to regulate the growing Wisconsin payday loan industry are going nowhere, and a new proposal in the State Legislature isn’t likely to do anything to break the impasse, reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. […]