Aid poor, not lenders, coalition urges banks

Pointing to a bill Congress passed late last week that caps the annual percentage rate of interest at 36 percent for consumer credit extended to a members of the U.S. armed forces, CORC director Linda Hilton said Utah should do something to address what will be a "disparity" between what military and nonmilitary customers pay, and that CORC will get behind several industry-targeted bills during the upcoming legislative session.

Zions opposes a mandatory cap on interest rates, because it believes the free market will keep interest rates at banks "in equilibrium with what the costs to banks are," Hoffman said. Restrictions by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. keep it from offering short-term lending products to directly compete with payday lenders.

But it did launch Zions Express, a check-cashing service, earlier this year and continues its "Financial Peace University," a series of free workshops and seminars on debt reduction and financial independence.

"Zions Bank is as progressive as any bank in our market area in reaching out and helping those who, for whatever reason, have chosen not to work with a bank, and in helping people keep from getting into financially stressful situations," said Robert Brough, the bank's spokesman. "We feel good about the efforts we've made, and make, and will continue to make in order to help people."

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