Payday-Loan Fight Goes Bipartisan in States as CFPB Backs Off

Closing a loophole in Georgia’s usury laws that allows auto title lenders to charge interest rates as high as 300% is neither a Democratic nor Republican issue to State Sen. Randy Robertson.

The Republican lawmaker said bringing auto title lenders under the state’s 60% interest rate cap, which has effectively prevented payday lending from taking hold in the state, is about helping people out of desperate circumstances.

“I saw the role that poverty played in crime. A lot of people were trapped in generational poverty,” Robertson said.

Robertson’s proposed legislation is part of a new wave of state-level efforts to ...