[Steve_Seattle]

"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 you are operating within the law - and nothing in the letters from the banks suggests otherwise - it is not the prerogative of the federal government to try to shut you down just because they disagree with the nature of your business.

[Dilbert San Diego]

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.