US federal regulator seeks limits on payday lenders

New York

IN THE world of consumer finance, they are chameleons: payday lenders that alter their practices and shift their products ever so slightly to work around state laws aimed at stamping out short-term loans that can come with interest rates exceeding 300 per cent.

Such manoeuvres by the roughly US$46 billion payday loan industry, state regulators say, have frustrated their efforts to protect consumers.