This book analyzes the highly contentious payday lending industry presenting valuable new data
collected during Canada's recent regulatory reviews and demonstrating its relevance to payday
lending conversations taking place worldwide. The authors treat the industry with a balanced
hand by establishing its importance as an example of financialization and acknowledging the
complex impact of payday lending services on low-income and credit-constrained clients.
Up-to-date data from an interdisciplinary mix of financial econometric legal behavioral
economic and socioeconomic sources-all in the context of an established Canadian
industry-provide both proponents and opponents of payday lending with valuable evidence for
their discussions of how much regulation is required to minimize harmful consequences. These
insights from Canada expand a US-centric conversation and provide a key resource for the
growing list of countries in which the industry is present from the UK and Poland to South
Africa and Australia.
