July 10, 2008
On June
10, 2008 the Council For Fair Lending (Borrow Smart) held a Board
of Directors meeting in Birmingham. The meeting was attended by
Council board members and other Council members as well a several guest including
Title Pawn Council of Alabama members
and Maury Shevin, Executive Director of
Modern Financial.
Other special guests included Robin Oliver, Big Communications,
Jeff Ingram, Galese and Ingram and Michael Sullivan, The
Lobbyist Group.
MEETING DISCUSSIONS
During
the meeting we discussed our legislative and regulatory
situation in Alabama and in particular the Borrow Smart
activities of the last twelve months. More importantly, we
focused on ideas and projects for the coming year. Suffice
it to say, everyone seemed pleased with our results from the
previous year and had some great ideas on what our next focus
should be. We will have more on what comes next a little
later.
WHAT'S IN THE FUTURE?
After
what we went through last week with the Anniston Star
series and the Times Daily story it should be clear
to everyone what we face. In addition to our situation
here in Alabama, there are two other recent
events in other states that clearly show the magnitude of the
problems. Both of these events tell us storm clouds are
brewing and having a Borrow Smart to deal with these issues is
not a minute too soon. We believe we are probably better situated than
just about any other
state to confront these problems thanks to Borrow Smart. In short, we better be.
The fight is becoming much more intense and sophisticated!
Please take the time to read about these two events below:
1)
Ohio
Industry Closed Down. This is a lesson for us directly
from the battlefront in Ohio. In particular, notice the
part that discusses how the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) moved into the state almost two
years ago unbeknownst to the industry and the tactics they
deployed to quite effectively kill payday lending in Ohio.
2)
NAACP
Targets Utah. There is a clear lesson to learn from
this and it points to more fights of the same kind in the future. Read this
only after you read the article above. After reading the
Utah article, we have many questions: Is Utah the only
NAACP/CRL
target? What other states are in the crosshairs after Ohio and
Virginia? What tactics will they
use? Will they call newspapers in an attempt to place
more stories, as they did here last week? Will they be successful when they call?
Who else will they contact? Are we ready? The (CRL) has quite an unprecedented string of successes! Do you really think they will stop now?
After
meeting with the Anniston Star for almost two hours earlier
this week, we
believe we know the answer to many of these questions!
With such an incredible success rate, do you honestly believe
that lobbying at the statehouse alone will stop this?
One
other important point, notice the quote in the Utah article:
"A
quarter of the states in this country have outlawed them.
Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New
Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont and
West Virginia....."
Notice
they are counting, even if they left off a few.
We sure better count, also. The count will continue to go
up as long as the industry continues to fight the wrong battle
in the wrong places in a fragmented, uncoordinated way.
Notice also both of the organizations mentioned in the
Utah article are national
organizations with one well coordinated and effective attack
plan -- to kill our industry.
GOOD NEWS
We're
working on our plans for the next "season," but we already know
that our Borrow Smart dues will be somewhat less than they have
been in the past. In fact, you may have noticed we have
not sent quarterly bills yet. The fact is our financial
picture is good at the moment. Be on the lookout for
more information soon on budgets and some exciting new plans in the not too
distant future.
