On February 15, 2016, we wrote a letter to the FDIC addressing our concerns with the new high-cost installment loans offered by Republic Bank of Kentucky in partnership with Elevate Credit. In the same letter, we addressed Republic’s Refund Advance product, a new tax-related refund loan.

From 2005 until 2012, Reinvestment Partners pursued a campaign to eliminate refund anticipation loans. In partnership with a number of other advocacy groups, we published reports and wrote comment letters. Now that banks can longer originate Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs), consumers save tens of millions of dollars per year. The following documents are presented in sequential order from the course of our campaign: