Hello, I am Sofia Franco from the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). CRL is a non-profit, non-partisan policy and research organization dedicated to building family wealth through the elimination of predatory lending practices. I'm reaching out to you because your city passed a local ordinance to restrict predatory payday lending in previous years. Because of your past efforts, CRL would like to invite you to join our efforts to combat predatory high-cost consumer loans ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, where there is currently no statutory APR limit. Predatory consumer lending remains a major issue plaguing vulnerable communities in California such as low-income groups, people of color, and seniors. According to a 2016 annual report by the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO), 58% of high-cost installment loans of $2,500 to $5,000 had 100% APRs or higher. These destructive loans leave the borrower with damaged credit, and the inability to access future credit and regain financial stability. The Center for Responsible Lending calls on you for support of this bill. We are asking that you sign a support letter and urge your city to pass a resolution in support of the bill. We hope to have as many sign-on's as possible before February 15th, so that we can utilize your support in our campaign. To assist in this process, I have attached to this email bill language, a fact sheet, a sample support letter, and an LA Times article regarding the issue. (See attachments and link below) The bill has not been formally introduced yet, so we ask that you please don't circulate the bill text widely. If you have any further questions, please reach out to me at this email address. I would be more than happy to arrange a phone meeting, as well. Thank you exceedingly for your time and attention to this request and we look forward to hearing from you. Please review: LA Times article: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-installment-loans-20180119-htmlstory.html Disclaimer: At the end of the article, the reporter states that Assembly member Kalra pulled the rate cap bill for an expansion of the pilot loan program. This is incorrect. Former Chairman Dababneh inserted the rate cap bill it into his own bill, AB 784 that would have expand the pilot loan program. Dababneh later weakened the rate cap by exempting car title lenders and other predatory lenders. Thank you, Sofia Franco Sofia.Franco_at_(domainremoved) Center for Responsible Lending www.responsiblelending.org http://www.responsiblelending.org > application/pdf attachment: CRL Bill Reading Guide_Rate Cap.pdf application/pdf attachment: CRL Fact sheet_2018 rate cap bill.pdf application/pdf attachment: LA Times article_Borrow $5000 repay $42000 How super high-interest .._.pdf application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document attachment: Sample support letter_Rate Cap_CRL.docx
