Protests Over Payday Loans Break Out at Meeting for Shareholders
By J.J. CameronPayday Loan Writer
How do payday loan antagonists get their points across? Use inflatable sharks, of course.
Shareholders arriving for the annual Wells Fargo meeting in San Franciso were greeted by dozens of these novelties, meant to symbolize the discontent of protestors over the company's predatory payday advance lending. The demontration was led by communitry group, ACORN.
After the demonstration, 18 of the protestors entered the meeting using proxies donated by Responsible Wealth, a group of socially conscience investors. They presented a resolution in the meeting asking Wells Fargo to explain why the company charges African-American and Latino borrowers higher interest rates on cash loans than whites.
For more than three years ACORN has been waging a national campaign against Wells Fargo's predatory mortgage lending, which the group contends has especially harmed communities of color. In California, according to ACORN, African-Americans who get a home loan from Wells Fargo are six times more likely than whites to get charged a high rate and Latinos are almost four times more likely than whites to get a high rate.
Wells Fargo, moreover, provides loans to some of the largest payday loan lenders, check cashers, and pawnshops in the country; companies such as:
- Money Mart
- ACE Cash Express
- Advance America
- Cash America
