Lawmakers are partnering with an ultraconservative, billionaire-backed bill mill to make it easier for financial technology companies to rip off workers trying to access paycheck advances through their smartphones.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit organization known for drafting model bills pushing pro-corporate, right-wing causes, is circulating a legislative template to establish industry-favored regulations for “earned-wage access” providers — a new app-based financial technology that provides cash advances to users by letting them access their paycheck before they’re issued.
Although many financial technology companies claim these products are a new innovation, earned-wage access products are similar to predatory payday loans, which have faced strict regulations and bans in a number of states due to high fees and harsh repayment plans. Payday loans have often targeted low-income communities, and people’s inability to repay them can create debt spirals and lead to lower credit scores, repossessions, and court hearings, among other disastrous consequences.
I look forward to The Lever doing major on-going coverage of ALEC - a most pernicious organization equalling AIPAC for its destructiveness on everything and anything that serves the well being and uplifts our people. In other words its constant well funded efforts to thwart the progressive voice (consciousness) and undermine rainbow representatives, ie Democracy. Thank for all your perseverance in highlighting the treacheries that hurt us all.