The Latest: Arizona Senate panel OKs new high-interest loans

PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on an Arizona Senate proposal allowing new high-interest loans (all times local):

5 p.m.

Republicans on an Arizona Senate panel have voted to advance a new proposal that allows lenders to officer a new high interest rate loan product in the state.

The proposal from Sen. Debbie Lesko emerged Tuesday as an amendment to unrelated legislation more than three months after the Legislature convened for the year. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the amendment on House Bill 2496 on a 6-4 vote with no Democratic support.

Voters barred the payday lending industry from the state in 2008. Proponents have been pushing new high interest rate products in recent years. This year’s proposal is called a “Consumer Access Line of Credit” and carries a maximum annual interest rate of 164 percent for loans up to $2,500.

Democrats have fiercely opposed giving what they call predatory lenders the green light to return to Arizona. Backers say the loans give people without credit a way to get needed cash.

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12:40 p.m.

A new proposal allowing payday lenders barred from Arizona following a 2008 voter initiative to offer a new high-interest loan product has emerged in the Senate.

The effort was revealed as an amendment to a bill set for an Appropriations Committee hearing Tuesday afternoon.

Proponents have been pushing high interest rate products for the past two years. This year’s proposal is called a “Consumer Access Line of Credit” and carries a maximum annual interest rate of 164 percent for loans up to $2,500.

Last year’s proposal was for “flex loans” with interest rates of about 200 percent a year.

Democrats have fiercely opposed giving what they call predatory lenders the green light to return to Arizona. Backers say the loans gives people without credit a way to get needed cash.