 I'm joined by Megan Dugan Adele from New America, Chicago. As you know, at the Chicago Community Trust, we've taken a stand on predatory lending because high interest rate lenders tend to be concentrated in black and Latinx communities. And this is important as we consider closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap. Megan, we hear the term predatory lending thrown around. What types of loans does that term refer to? Thanks so much, Yada. Predatory loans broadly refer to loans that are fraudulent deceptive or have unfair terms and conditions. And usually we use that term to refer to loans with incredibly high interest rates. So they might have terms that purposely make it really difficult for borrowers to repay them so that the lender can make more money. So they may include really high fees, other add-on costs that typically weren't counted as part of the interest rate under the Federal Truth and Lending Act. But in actuality, people were paying 100 to 400% interest when interest rate was calculated properly. So this can include many types of loans, but usually we're talking about payday loans, installment payday loans, which are loans that are maybe over a few months. Title loans, so with people's cars is kind of a collateral. And pawn loans are some of the most common. These types of loans are actually still legal in Illinois, but the interest rates are now capped at 36% just to make sure that people can actually pay them back without paying an arm and a leg. And speaking with Brent Adams from the Woodstock Institute. Brent, you've been working on the issue of predatory lending for years. Can you give us a little background on predatory lending in Illinois? How long were these loans legal and what changed with the PLPA? For decades, predatory lending was illegal in Illinois and predatory in that context meant it was illegal a felony to charge in excess of 20% APR. What changed was in 1985, an amendment was added to that law, the criminal usury statute, that allowed you to charge in excess of that amount so long as you had a license. This very literally opened the door for legalized loan sharking. So from 1985, really until last year, predatory lenders were able to charge triple digit interest rates. Before 2005, they could charge quadruple digit interest rates. I saw loans of over 1,000% APR. So we incrementally made steps since 2005 to try to reform the industry, clamp down on the most abusive practices. But at the end of the day, we realized that only a comprehensive across the board, 36% rate cap would effectively protect consumers. Senator Collins, you took a huge leadership role in passing this legislation in 2021. Why was the Predatory Loan Prevention Act, the PLPA, necessary? How widespread are these types of loans? Predatory lending has drained billions and billions of dollars out of my community and out of other underserved communities. And we know that the PLPA wasn't necessary. It was long overdue. But we know that the predatory lenders and that industry have been able to circumvent regulation and basically have been operating as loan sharks. And so we think it's so important that the billions of dollars that have been drained out of our community, now with the PLPA, that same amount of money, the billions of dollars can now be redirected to communities to rebuild those communities. In my area, especially in the black and low income communities that I represent, we know that there is a saturation of predatory lending and payday loans for an example. It's uncommon to find such entities in middle class and white communities. And for an example, in my district in one zip code 60619, which has the highest black population, we have the highest amount of predatory lending. So it's really about, I would call reverse redlining where certain communities have been targeted. And that's why it was so important to move forward with the legislation.