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Despite record high foreclosures, unemployment, and broken state budgets, one industry is flourishing: Payday Lending.

And, in our new report, Profiting from Poverty: How Payday Lenders Strip Wealth from the Working-Poor for Record Profits, we document just how devastating this industry is to our communities.

Here are some of the findings:

• Payday lenders take at the very least $3.4 billion from our communities every year in fees alone. That's $3.4 billion that could have gone to buy groceries or school supplies but instead pumped up payday lenders' fat bottom lines.
   
• Nationwide, revenues for the major payday loan companies (Advance America, EZ Corp, First Cash Financial, Dollar Financial, Cash America, QC Holdings) have risen to their highest level - $1.48 Billion per year- more than before the financial crisis.
   
• Big banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and US Bank finance approximately 42% of the entire payday loan industry, providing the industry the capital for usurious and predatory loans.

Download a free copy of the report here.

It's pretty clear that we need stricter consumer protection, and the recent appointment of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a step in the right direction.

But we need to ensure payday lending is at a top priority for the CFPB.

If you agree, send a note to the CFPB today and tell them to act swiftly to rein in payday lenders.

In solidarity,

National People's Action (NPA)

Showdown in America is a national bank accountability campaign coordinated by National People's Action - a Network of community power organizations from across the country that work to advance a national economic and racial justice agenda.

National People's Action