Posted on 04/21/2015 6:15:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Operation Choke Point, the Obama administration’s under-the-radar project involving the Department of Justice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) whose goal is to shut down industries it does not like by “choking off” their banking relationships, is taking aim at another business.
Brian Lynn, CEO of a Jacksonville, Florida based payday lending company that operates 26 stores in Florida, Georgia and Alabama under the Speedy Cash and Lending Bear brands, has been in business for more than 20 years. He confirms to Breitbart News that two major banks closed his company’s accounts with no explanation in 2014.
Lynn, a former Marine Corps officer with an MBA from the University of Florida, took over the business from his father 13 years ago.
“We received a letter from our bank of more than ten years, the Bank of America, back in June, telling us they were closing down the accounts we had for nine of our stores in the Jacksonville area,” Lynn tells Breitbart News....
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
And to top it off he’s a MARINE.
Officer Lynn puts his life on the line for this country and this is how he’s paid back?
I do not agree with the strategy, but I am not sure I would go to bat for a payday lender even if the owner was a Marine without assessing the fairness and appropriateness of their business practices.
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First Lieutenant
United States Marine Corps
November 1995 – May 1999 (3 years 7 months)
Start bribing/lobbying your State Legislature to have their Corporate Charter Revoked for unethical behavior. The STATE ALONE has this Power, they used to wield it.
Payday loan operations typically charge outrageous interest and practice other predatory business practices. But, these problem ought to be handled by state government and ought to be done by legislation action, not by some arbitrary decision by the federal government.
They are going after the payday operations and gun stores right now, who will they decide to go after next. When government acts outside the law, then we no longer have a society of law.
Agreed.
If someone is operating a legal business, and is not in violation of any laws, how does the federal government, through CFPB or FDIC, have any authority to just summarily terminate banking relationships with such business?
This area sounds ripe for a lawsuit to me. If you operate a legal business, how can the federal government have anything to say about your banking relationships, or other legal arrangements for your business? Next will they revoke your contracts with your office supply vendor? Compel your landlord to terminate your lease for your office space? Compel the utility to stop utility service to your business, because the federal government disapproves of your business?
This is a slippery slope, and if not stopped, we are all at risk of this being done to us.
I hate the payday loan companies and would love to see some legislation happen protecting the consumer from there abuses but pressuring banks not to do business with them is not the answer I want to see. I think the strategy is to go after business that are shades of grey shady so that 10 years from now that the government can get away with doing it to a institution it does no like. like a church or a political organization.
I do not agree with the strategy, but I am not sure I would go to bat for a payday lender even if the owner was a Marine without assessing the fairness and appropriateness of their business practices.
If there are problems with the fairness or appropriateness of their business practices, such issues should be dealt with. I think the issue we see here is that the federal government is taking a heavy handed approach, to try to shut down a legal business, without regard to the issues you mentioned.
I am shocked when I hear about the high interest rates and fees of the payday lenders. But, as long as such businesses are legal, I just don’t see how it’s the business of the federal government to go in and deprive them of banking services.
He says he'll never get rich, but he can pay his bills and makes loans to people that otherwise wouldn't get a loan.
He also said that the meltdown in 2007-2008 almost put him under because so many people lost their jobs and had no expectation of getting a new job. People that he dealt with for years just disappeared.
Agreed.
Anyone who can run a loan business with lower rates is absolutely free to do so. If they decide to do so, I am sure they will immediately drive the payday loan companies out of business.
Unless a person is willing to cash in on this obviously lucrative opportunity, he should not criticize those who are in the payday loan business.
Where did you get that info? That doesn’t make much sense for an “officer” to be serving less than four years.
I agree. My point is whether this is the case to use political capital on. The feds should stay out definitely. It really is a caveat emptor situation.
I would rather the fight be on outrageous EPA regulations where communities are being devastated and energy prices are being artificially driven up.
The best solution to payday lenders is to allow some large brand name competition to enter this market - Walmart is the first name that comes to mind.
Payday lenders provide a real service to those at the very bottom of the economic scale. The interest rates seem high, but only because the loans are very small.
Economists who look at the industry find that it makes perfect sense for very small borrowers to use payday lenders. If we drive them out of business, the need will not disappear. It will be filled by organized crime...
Great post 2dv. Got to keep at it, never stop.
From his LinkedIn page.
Not a fan of legalized loan sharking, but I agree that ‘Choke Point’ isn’t the appropriate way to regulate such industries.
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