Thread by @doctorow

"Partner with us today to build a better tomorrow" - that's the slogan for @oportun, a predatory lender that sued more poor latinx people during the pandemic than any other.

propublica.org/article/the-lo…

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The company sued longtime customers who'd spent years in a debt-trap of endless payments and refinancing, customers who lost their jobs and missed some of those payments.

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It was just an escalation of business-as-usual for a company that has sued 30 customers a day, every day since May 2016. The company filed 10,000 lawsuits in the first five months of the pandemic. They are among the nation's most litigious lenders.

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No wonder. With APRs as high as 66.99%, Oportun has guaranteed that vast numbers of borrowers will fail to meet their payments and end up trapped in the company's lawsuit factory.

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Now they want to go national. The company - which operates in 12 states today - has applied for a nationwide banking charter. But thanks to reporting from @propublica and the @TexasTribune, they may not get it.

propublica.org/article/a-lend…

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40+ consumer rights and latinx groups cosigned a letter to the @USOCC objecting to Oportun's application. Among the signatories is @WeAreUnidosUS, who partnered with Oportun as recently as 2019.

beta.documentcloud.org/documents/2044…

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Oportun promises to draw down its campaign of legal terror against victims of its predatory lending, but that's too little, too late. For the sake of the 10,000+ covid-impoverished families they terrorized at the pandemic's height, they should be shut down, not expanded.

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Image: Gan Khoon Lay (modified)
thenounproject.com/term/debt-coll…

CC BY:
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.…