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Virginia House votes for payday loan protections

Virginia could put significant new limits on short-term loans under a bill approved last Friday by the house of delegates.

The bill would cap short-term loan rates at 36% for things such as payday lending, title lending, online lending, consumer finance and open credit loans.

It also would require a public annual report on those loans in Virginia.

“The only reason that they are preying upon Virginians is because we allow it,” said Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico.

The House passed a separate bill earlier in the week that focused on student loan borrower protections.

The Senate also voted Friday to require banks to report suspicion of elder abuse or exploitation to police when they refuse to execute a transaction because of that concern.

Another Senate bill, endorsed 25-13, would ban retaliation against workers who complain they are misclassified as independent contractors.



Va. health dept. improves nursing home inspection backlog, reforms sanction criteria for facilities

Stories of neglect in care or unsanitary living situations have plagued several of Virginia’s nursing home facilities in recent years and data backs up a lapse in oversight by state agencies.  With reform efforts underway, the Virginia Department of Health officials said they aim to adopt sanction criteria by the end of the year to rein in bad actors and get troubled facilities back on track.  As of July, 58% of Virginia’s nursing homes were overdue for inspections and 68 of Virginia’s 289 nursing homes were found to have serious deficiencies, according to ProPublica. Several of the state’s flagged facilities with numerous deficiencies also had high staffing turnover rates.  The issue has been salient among various healthcare spaces, including VDH. 
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