Bay area has 32 of California’s significantly more than 2,000 pay day loan outlets. Picture by Jason Winshell/Public Press
COMPANY: Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse among biggest backers of lucrative low-finance companies
Even while the Occupy bay area encampment in the base of marketplace Street indicated outrage at big banking institutions and high finance, it stayed company as always at a few of the city’s less glamorous financial establishments.
High-interest, unsecured “payday” loans are plentiful at 32 establishments along marketplace Street as well as in low-income communities across the town. A lot of people with bank records qualify.
These stark storefronts — where hard-pressed customers fall into line to talk to clerks behind Plexiglas windows and make an application for high-cost payday advances — may appear unconnected to Wall Street.
But while their names and brands are nowhere to be noticed, banking institutions and rich investors based right here or in remote monetary enclaves like Manhattan or Zurich offer funds to or very own stakes in a few of San Francisco’s biggest lenders that are payday. Included in these are cash Mart, with eight shops, and California Check Cashing Co., with five.
In March, Wells Fargo & Co., the bank that is largest located in bay area, acted because the administrative representative of the bank syndicate that offered DFC worldwide Corp., who owns cash Mart, by having a $200 million revolving credit, relating to SEC filings. Continue reading “Let me make it clear about Big banking institutions help payday lenders offer fast money at high costs”