As Ohio payday lending law fails, some lawmakers ready for new regulations

Nine years after Ohio lawmakers and voters approved restrictions on what payday lenders can charge for short-term loans, those fees are now the highest in the nation.

Ohio's 2008 payday lending law has been ineffective. The question now is whether lawmakers are ready to address it.

Lenders avoided the law's 28 percent loan interest rate cap by simply registering under different sections of state law that weren't designed for payday loans but allowed them to charge an average 591 percent annual interest rate.

Low- and middle-income Ohioans who borrow $300 from a payday lender pay, on average, $680 in interest and fees over a five-month period, the typical amount of time a borrower is in debt on what is supposed to be a two-week loan, according to research by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Read more: http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170319/as-ohio-payday-lending-law-fails-some-lawmakers-ready-for-new-regulations