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In response to Republic Bancorp, Inc.’s continued
provision of short-term predatory consumer loans, including payday loans and tax
refund anticipation loans (RAL’s), CRA-NC has introduced an anti-predatory
lending shareholder proposal to be voted on at Republic’s annual meeting of stockholders, to be
held on April 14, 2005 in Louisville, Kentucky.
CRA-NC
Proposal - #4 – Short Term Bank Products
Republic
Board Of Directors’ Response
“Republic
meeting to note success; 'payday' loans also an issue,”
Business First, April 8, 2005
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The
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) describes “predatory lenders”
as those lenders that target borrowers “who have low incomes or credit
problems or who are elderly by deceiving them about loan terms or giving them
loans they cannot afford to repay.”
We
believe Republic’s short-term consumer loans are predatory under the
FDIC’s definition because, in our opinion, Republic charges unreasonable
interest rates via high fees for extremely short terms, and encourages multiple
loan renewals.
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