HB 1351

By Marianne Goodland
The Colorado Statesman

Efforts to undo part of last year's payday lending reforms came to an end on Thursday, when the Senate Local Government and Energy Committee voted on a party-line 3-2 vote to shut down House Bill 11-1290.

The Local Government committee was the only one in the Senate without a clear supporter or sponsor of HB 1290, and it was sent the assignment of hearing HB 1290 from the Senate Finance Committee in a surprise move Tuesday.

Payday borrowers scored a major victory Tuesday when the Colorado Attorney General's Office revised rules for implementing the payday lending law adopted this past legislative session (HB 10-1351). The new rules state that all charges and fees, including the origination fee, must be refunded on a pro-rata basis if a loan is paid off early. A previous version of the rules stated that the origination fee was not refundable.

By Joe Hanel
The Durango Herald

DENVER – A Democratic candidate for attorney general has charged that the payday lending industry might be improperly influencing rules for the high-interest loans.

Attorney general candidate Stan Garnett says campaign contributions to incumbent John Suthers, a Republican, are suspicious because they happened while Suthers' office is writing new rules for the industry.

"Coincidence? You decide, and then decide who you want as your attorney general," Garnett said in an online video he released Thursday.

Years of hard work paid off yesterday when Gov. Bill Ritter signed the payday lending bill into law.

We view this as a long, overdue victory for consumer protection in Colorado.

In 2002, the Bell identified predatory lending as a crippling practice that holds back too many families, preventing them from building wealth and achieving self-sufficiency.

We've sent several emails on the effort to reform payday lending, but please indulge us one more time ...

Payday lending reform has been approved by both houses of the legislature!

House Bill 1351, the payday lending reform bill, passed out of the Senate today. That's a critical milestone. We are closer than ever before to removing from the market a dangerous product that more often than not hurts those it is supposed to help.

The Senate is the next stop for the House Bill 1351 -- the payday lending reform bill.

The bill faced its final reading in the House today, and it passed with 33 votes. Next, it will be introduced in the Senate, and it could be up for a committee hearing before the end of the week.

We'll keep you posted on developments.

By Garrett Andrews
The Durango Herald

A bill that would let voters cap the interest rates payday lenders are allowed to charge customers heads Monday to the state's House Judiciary Committee.

The Pueblo Chieftain
Sunday, March 14, 2010

By Rich Jones
Bell Policy Center

Payday loans are being debated at the Colorado Legislature – again.

The difference this time is that lawmakers are being asked to put the question to voters – to let them decide if these loans should be subject to Colorado's 36 percent interest rate cap, which applies to all other lenders.

We at the Bell have been working for several years to reform payday lending in Colorado. We can talk about the problem in terms of interest rates and fees, the average number of loans or the prevalence of same-day-as-payoff loans. Yes, we know the numbers and all the statistics.

But we never forget the real reason we are trying to change this law: These loans are predatory products, and they hurt people. And it's not just the borrowers who get hurt -- the rest of us pay a price and our economy suffers when people are deprived of the opportunity to succeed.