{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The High Cost Loan Scandal No One is Talking About","description":"\u201cThe only gig in town came with 60% interest, because we were considered subprime lending. It meant that every payment of \u00a315,000 included \u00a39,000 interest.\u201d Business owner David, who subsequently saved more than \u00a380,000 in interest a year by refinancing with a CDFI. When it comes to high-cost credit, most of us think of personal borrowing and payday loans. But the quote above comes from a business owner. More than a decade after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) took over regulating consumer lending and introduced the cap on payday loans, there\u2019s a new high-cost loan story unfolding. Up to one in four loan enquiries to Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) now come from small businesses seeking to escape unsustainable high-cost loans. It rarely makes headlines, but it is leaving some firms fighting to survive. In this episode Eleanor Russell, Policy and Research Manager at Responsible Finance, describes the high-cost business loans crisis. A community development finance institution (CDFI), SWIG Finance, was able to refinance the business owner quoted above, saving his firm \u00a380,000 to \u00a390,000 of interest a year. Eleanor has more jaw-dropping statistics and describes what banks and government can do so that more businesses become aware of ethical, responsible lending options through CDFIs, earlier. ","author_name":"The Responsible Finance Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/responsiblefinance.libsyn.com\/website","html":"