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Letter to Comptroller Stringer Calling for Divestment from Illegal Payday Lenders

The Honorable Scott M. Stringer Comptroller, Nyc One Centre Street Nyc, NY 10007

Dear Comptroller Stringer:

The businesses that are undersigned that you immediately and completely divest ny City’s your retirement funds from payday lending businesses – whose loans are categorically illegal in nyc. City pension funds spent more than $20 million in payday lending and high-cost installment financing businesses in 2016. Additionally, City retirement funds invested nearly $160 million in Lone celebrity Fund VIII, an individual equity investment who has DFC global, Inc.,i which, in modification, owns several pay day loan providers, including money Mart although the Check Cashing Store.

Investing retirement that is general general public in disreputable payday funding organizations raises a conflict that is primary the town. Not simply do these lenders make triple-digit interest rate loans that can easily be illegal in nyc, however the almost all those happen the topic of enforcement actions for flagrant violations concerning the legislation; mistreated customers; personalbadcreditloans.net/payday-loans-wy/ and encountered allegations of misleading and defrauding investors – including pension that is public – in states where these are typically permitted to make use of.

The large choice of investments : ● cash America Overseas, Inc. and EZCORP, Inc. have been the subjects of major enforcement actions due to the client Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for illegally court that is robo-signing, breaking the Military that is federal Lending,ii and unlawfully harassing borrowers at their homes and workplaces,iii among other violations. ● Cash America Overseas, Inc. additionally made loans with interest rates that surpassed 1,000per cent to Pennsylvania residents,iv in breach of Pennsylvania’s customer protection laws. ● World Acceptance Corp. is actually under research due to the CFPBv since March 2014 to discover whether or otherwise not the company’s exploitative business practicesvi are presented in breach linked to the client Financial Protection Act, the truth in Lending Act, along with other federal customer monetary regulations. ● Enova Overseas, Inc., operator for the payday that is CashNetUSA that is online up being found to own gotten one of the most consumer complaints among all payday lenders,vii on the basis of the CFPB’s consumer problem database. ● DFC Global, Inc. have been sued by a broad basic average man or woman retirement investment concerning the grounds so that it “misrepresented to investors that [1] it complied with government rules and guidance with respect to reckless funding practices, and [2] that the company made ‘prudent,’ ‘conservative,’ and ‘responsible’ underwriting decisions when making loans.”viii

We think these assets pose reputational, appropriate, regulatory and economic potential risks, and therefore you’ve got an ethical and fiduciary duty to divest.

Nyc is one of the 15 states, plus D.C., where state that is strong guidelines and enforcement effectively ban payday lending. brand name name} brand name name|brand name} completely new York’s usury directions are one of many strongest in to the nation, capping interest rates at 25% APR. As a consequence of our ban, New Yorkers save about $790 million every year in feesix that cash advance providers and their ilk would otherwise siphon—an estimate that doesn’t also add bank overdraft fees along with other fallout this is certainly pay that is economic loans.

In states where the payday financing industry is permitted to work, people struggling to obtain from paycheck to paycheck are methodically targeted for high-cost loans they can’t handle. Cash advance providers charge excessive costs and interest this is certainly – that is shockingly high between 300% and 400% APR. The financing that is payday model is dedicated to loan-flipping, as borrowers typically must refinance or go over their loans – usually multiple times – ensnaring them in a durable amount of monetary obligation. Research indicates that communities of color are disproportionately targeted of those loans which are debt-trap