Whenever Columbia University legislation profeor Ronald Mann undertook a study of 1,000 pay day loan clients to ascertain it would take to repay a loan, little did he know that the resulting study would become a lightning rod in the drafting of the first federal regulation for small-dollar lenders if they could estimate how long.

The customer Financial Protection Bureau’s previous leadership cited Mann’s research over 30 times in a current rule meant to impose strict underwriting needs for pay day loans.Continue reading→