Jeff Joseph writes for Investor’s Business Daily about new information detailing the Obama administration’s efforts to thwart payday lenders.
New federal documents shine the light on how the Obama administration unjustly targeted the payday loan industry. Through a sketchy initiative called Operation Choke Point, unelected bureaucrats stretched the law in an attempt to keep potential borrowers from accessing funds.
Obama’s Justice Department began Operation Choke Point in 2013. On paper, the initiative gave senior-level government officials at the Federal Insurance Deposit Commission (FDIC) the ability to investigate companies they believed could be involved in fraud or money laundering. In reality, the program enabled FDIC officials to abuse their power by strong-arming banks into cutting ties with industries that were arbitrarily deemed to be “high risk.”
These industries included industries that the Obama administration didn’t approve of — namely firearms, fireworks, and payday loans.
Information on the program was sketchy — few documents were public. But now we know a lot more about this political witch hunt due to letters subpoenaed in the court case Advance America et al. v Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. et al.
These letters show that FDIC regional directors were specifically targeting the payday lending industry, and their rhetoric reeks of bias. One director referred to the industry as a “dirty business” and told his staff that he must be informed if “(a)ny banks even remotely involved in payday (lending).” FDIC officials told one bank that it was “unacceptable” for the bank to continue to serve payday lenders.
