State, major payday lender again face off in court over "refinancing" high-interest loans

One of Nevada’s largest payday lenders is again facing off in court against a state regulatory agency in a case testing the limits of legal restrictions on refinancing high-interest, short-term loans.

The state’s Financial Institutions Division, represented by Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office, recently appealed a lower court’s ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court that found state laws prohibiting the refinancing of high-interest loans don’t necessarily apply to a certain kind of loan offered by TitleMax, a prominent title lender with more than 40 locations in the state.

The case is similar but not exactly analogous to another pending case before the state Supreme Court between TitleMax and state regulators, which challenged the company’s expansive use of grace periods to extend the length of a loan beyond the 210-day limit required by state law.

Instead of grace periods, the most recent appeal surrounds TitleMax’s use of “refinancing” for individuals who aren’t able to immediately pay back a title loan (typically extended in exchange for a person’s car title as collateral) and another state law that restricted title loans to only be worth the “fair market value” of the automobile used in the loan process.

Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/state-major-payday-lender-again-face-off-in-court-over-refinancing-high-interest-loans