Clarity Services: Response to New York Times Payday Loan Article
Letters to the Editor The New York Times 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018 Re: A response to your editorial on payday lending. My name is Tim Ranney and I am the president of Clarity Services, a leading credit bureau in the non-prime credit services industry. I wanted to offer a few thoughts on your March 4 editorial on payday lending and the information you used from the Pew Research Center study that you referenced. First off, let me say that I am not an opponent or proponent of payday lending or any other financial services industry...
read moreSequester cuts and self-determination
In Washington, debate is de rigeur, but the so-called budget sequester has garnered a rare D.C. consensus: near-universal disdain. The program, originally a failsafe against congressional inaction, was never intended to take effect. Now, though, it’s the law of the land and exacting its brutal cuts everywhere we look and in every corner of the country. Nothing, it seems, is safe. While people across the United States are feeling the impact, these cuts have not been particularly kind to those of us in the Indian community. Recent reports have...
read moreSen. Merkley: Stop Demonizing Legal Native American Businesses
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley made his bones by removing Oregon payday lenders from the state by limiting their potential revenue to the point where they couldn’t do business. The result was a loss of several hundred jobs, millions in labor income, and many more millions in GSP. And it didn’t change a single thing about payday loan usage in Oregon. Just like Prohibition, demand for the product didn’t just vanish, but supply did. And just like Prohibition, people were forced to go to other sources for the product they wanted, and pay more...
read moreAnalog tribes in a digital economy
If 90% of public schools in the United States lacked Internet access, there would be a national call to action. If 90% of any ethnic group in the country was not connected to the Internet, the backlash would be immense. In 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a report that estimated that 90% of Indian country lacks access to the Internet, and usage rates are as low as 5% in some areas. Would you like to know what happened? The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) did a brief news story. We commend PBS for covering this...
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NCAIED Welcomes NAFSA and AT&T as Sponsors of RES OKLAHOMA
Mesa, Ariz. October 11, 2012 – The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED) is pleased to announce that the Native American Financial Services Association (NAFSA) and AT&T are the newest sponsors of RES OKLAHOMA, the NCAIED’s new two-day multifaceted Reservation Economic Summit (RES) event to be held from November 14th-15th at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, OK. “We are greatly appreciative of the sponsorship contributions that both NAFSA and AT&T have made to our upcoming Reservation...
read moreE-Commerce Opportunities for Tribal Governments
Academic research reveals that the history of American Indian business development up until the last three decades can be reduced to a simple yet largely unsuccessful approach: the overriding focus was on what the federal government could do to “help” Indian nations, most of whom were in poverty. This failed scheme tended toward grant-making for projects and programs designed by non-Indians and a development agenda that was almost wholly federal government-driven. Indian nations were often caught up in what was essentially a transfer...
read moreAmerican Web Loan to Expand Its Oklahoma Headquarters
Leading Tribal-Owned Online Lending Company to Add 60 Employees to Its Staff OKLAHOMA CITY, OK–(Marketwire – Aug 24, 2012) – American Web Loan, a leading nationally-respected online tribal financial services company wholly owned by the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians and its members, will soon expand the company’s Oklahoma headquarters with the hiring of an additional 60 employees to its roster. The expansion follows on the heels of American Web Loan’s national marketing efforts and ‘word of mouth’...
read moreNAFSA Commends Oprah Winfrey, Lisa Ling for ‘Our America: Life on the Rez’
The Native American Financial Services Association (NAFSA) has published an open letter of commendation to Oprah Winfrey and Lisa Ling for the episode of Our America with Lisa Ling that recently aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Subtitled Life on the Rez, the program looked at the issues and people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The show met with mostly positive reactions from Natives, if the Twittersphere is any guide. Read the full article. Share this:...
read moreDemocratic senators, Indian tribes battle over payday lender bill
Sen. Jeff Merkley is looking to crack down on payday lenders taking their business online. But his effort could be complicated by a group of Native American lenders who are crying foul over the measure and say it intrudes on tribal sovereignty. Earlier this week, Merkley (D-Ore.) along with Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) unveiled a measure aimed at trimming loopholes that have emerged as payday loans made over the Internet have grown in the last decade. Under the bill, online lenders, including those based...
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