Payday lending is legal in Nevada, with no limit on payday loans, and no cap on rates, with interest that can balloon over 600 percent. In 2019, Governor Steve Sisolak signed SB201, which requires the state to create a database tracking data on loans with a 40 percent or higher annual percentage rate interest, including loan amounts, fees, default rates and the interest charged on loans. It was meant to prevent unscrupulous lending to those who clearly wouldn’t be able to repay, such as people with multiple loans exceeding 25 percent of their income.
Legislative efforts to curb the state’s vast payday loan industry have a long history. In the 2000s, a series of laws tried to limit the length of high interest loans and the amounts charged once a borrower defaulted, but the industry kept fighting back, lobbying for delays and weak implementation or scurrying the rules altogether. It took until December 2020 for Nevada financial regulators to finally be given the green light implement the statewide database. Is it being implemented and if so, how so?
Here are the observations of Reno photographer John L’Etoile has he took photos of many of the money to loan places dotting our downtown:
“Reno has a disproportionately high amount of money loan centers in its lower income neighborhoods. This is obviously to prey on those who may need a cash advance of their paychecks and charge them a high interest rate on the return payments. Loans like these put those in a financial bind even further into the hole when an emergency needs to be covered and there isn’t time to be wasted. These centers have intriguing visuals to draw customers, with promises of large loans given away freely and without worry. Interest rates can sometimes reach upwards of 600% with short payday loans which if used in a cycle could surely ravage your bank account.”