Notah Begay III

LETTER: Native communities need legislative action to end predatory lending

  It is urgent that the legislature and Governor Lujan Grisham enact House Bill 132 (Rep. Herrera, Speaker Egolf, and Rep. Garratt) during the 2022 session to reduce the maximum annual interest rate on small loans from 175%, one of the highest rates in the nation, to 36%. This issue is personal to us, as the burden of predatory lending does not fall evenly on all New Mexicans.  Even though Native lands make up less than 10% of the state’s geography, 64% of predatory lenders in New Mexico operate within 15 miles of our reservation communities. It is our families, friends and neighbors who get caught in the cycle of insurmountable debt created by the high interest structure of predatory loans.