Advance Financial
Founded in 1996, Advance Financial is a high-interest payday lender based in Nashville, Tennessee.
The company offers high-interest payday loans, offering up to $4,000 at 279.5% interest. The company has filed over 110,000 lawsuits against its borrowers. The company is one of the top campaign donors in Tennessee, lobbying regulators to loosen restrictions on payday loan activities.
History
The company, then-called Advance Pay Day, was established by Michael and Tina Hodges in Nashville, Tennessee in the 1990s, offering payday loans. By 2010, Advance had approximately two dozen stores and generated $15 million in revenue.After the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which sought to limit predatory payday loan practices, Advance created a political action committee and hired lobbyists to lobby Tennessee politicians. Tennessee legislators subsequently passed a bill, signed into law by Governor Bill Haslam, to loosen restrictions on high-interest payday lenders. Following this, Advance's business boomed, with the company expanding to 105 locations by the end of the 2010s. By 2019, the company self-reported earnings of $392 million.
The Hodges have donated over $3 million to Donald Trump's presidential campaigns. In a 2019 recording uncovered by The Washington Post, Michael Hodges said those donations gave him better access to Trump. In 2020, the Trump administration appointed a new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who rescinded many payday loan regulations.
Associations
Advance Financial is a member of several trade organizations including Community Financial Services Association of America, Financial Service Centers of America where the founders, Mike and Tina Hodges serve on the board of directors and Online Lenders Alliance.Some of Advance Financial's offerings, including payday loans, have been described as "exploitative financial products to the working poor," since the short-term loans carry annual interest of up to 450%.