For the publisher:
Re “Mr. Trump’s Payback for Payday Lenders” (editorial, February 13):
Like many well-intentioned regulatory measures, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s regulations for payday lenders – which the Trump administration wants to overturn – actually hurt those they are supposed to help.
For many citizens with limited means, payday loans are the source of last resort for much-needed short-term funds. And yet these onerous regulations, including the requirements that the lender must determine whether the borrower can ‘afford’ the loan, will certainly make it insufficiently profitable for many of these payday lenders to continue to operate and push many. of them to quit the business altogether.
Those who support the bureau’s measures are denouncing the high interest rates these lenders charge for these risky loans and touting the “savings” borrowers will derive from regulation. But consumers who, due to these regulations, are unable to obtain payday loans and lose their car or home to foreclosure, will be the anonymous and faceless victims of another regulatory regime. well-intentioned but counterproductive government.
Kenneth A. Margolis
Chappaqua, New York
