From NYT:
Major banks have quickly become behind-the-scenes allies of Internet-based payday lenders that offer short-term loans with interest rates sometimes exceeding 500 percent.
With 15 states banning payday loans, a growing
number of the lenders have set up online operations in more hospitable
states or far-flung locales like Belize, Malta and the West Indies to
more easily evade statewide caps on interest rates.
While the banks, which include giants like
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, do not make the loans,
they are a critical link for the lenders, enabling the lenders to
withdraw payments automatically from borrowers’ bank accounts, even in
states where the loans are banned entirely. In some cases, the banks
allow lenders to tap checking accounts even after the customers have
begged them to stop the withdrawals.