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Editorial: Payday Loan Bill Eliminates Options
Posted on February 20th, 2010 No commentsProposed Wisconsin legislation that would cap payday loan interest rates and limit loan amounts “will not eliminate the financial need that still exists,” the Milwaukee Courier editor writes in an online editorial. “Instead of eliminating options, legislators should find a way to open up the door for more options. If the banks are threatened by this, then begin offering something better.”
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New Credit Card Rules to Take Effect
Posted on January 30th, 2010 No commentsEffective Feb. 22, credit card bills will show consumers how long it will take and what it truly will cost to pay off their balance if they only make minimum monthly payments, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explained.
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Editorial: Impose Fees on Big Banks
Posted on January 28th, 2010 No commentsPresident Obama’s proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee, which would tax about 50 of the nation’s biggest banks $9 billion a year over a decade, is “sound economic policy, because it will discourage bad behavior by those who were guilty of atrocious judgment in the years leading up to the collapse of the credit system,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes in an editiorial.
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Federal Law Brings Changes in Overdraft Fees
Posted on January 22nd, 2010 No commentsA check of local banks that provided information to the Wisconsin State Journal found a number of modest fee changes that some customers will face because of a change in federal law related to overdraft fees. Mike Petta, manager of the Verona branch of Capitol Bank, said he thinks smaller banks are trying to hold the line on fees. Read the article.
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Bill Would Expand Access to Capital
Posted on January 10th, 2010 No commentsState Rep. Ted Zigmunt, D-Francis Creek, is among co-authors of Assembly Bill 532, which creates a program called the Wisconsin Capital Access Program. The bill aims to expand access to credit for businesses in Wisconsin, reported the Manitwoc Herald Times Reporter. The Community Bankers of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Bankers Association support the bill.
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Democrats Propose New Tax Credits, Micro Loans
Posted on November 29th, 2009 No commentsSenate Democrats plan to hold hearings soon on the Wisconsin C.O.R.E. Jobs Act, a proposed $15 million package that would grant more angel investing tax credits and start a $500,000 micro-loan program to provide loans of $1,000 to $25,000 to new small businesses in areas of high unemployment, among other measures. Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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Women Voters Support Payday Loan Cap
Posted on October 2nd, 2009 No commentsThe League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Education Fund supports the approval of the Predatory Lending Consumer Protection Act (AB 392), which would cap interest rates on small dollar loans to 36 percent APR. The League will testify in support of AB 392 at the Oct. 7 joint hearing of the Assembly Committees on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection. Read more in the Small Business Times.
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Foreclosure Task Force Makes Recommendations
Posted on September 9th, 2009 No commentsA bipartisan Wisconsin task force on preventing home foreclosures is recommending legislation that would make state licensing of home appraisers mandatory and require mortgage brokers to put borrowers financial interests ahead of their own. The Wisconsin Bankers Association supported the recommendations, adding that mortgage brokers be held to bank-like standards, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
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Dems Push Federal Credit Card Reform
Posted on May 1st, 2009 No commentsTwo similar pieces of legislation, both sponsored by Democrats who control both houses of Congress, aim to increase credit card regulation, which they say is necessary to protect consumers. Read more in the Small Business Times of Milwaukee.
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‘Common Sense in Lending’
Posted on March 7th, 2009 No commentsA 2007 Minnesota law is an example of the kind of new federal banking law that the U.S. needs to prevent future predatory lending practices, the New York Times wrote in an editorial.