<p>Bill Quigley</p>
<p>Law Professor, Loyola University New Orleans</p>
<p>Many see families in poverty and seek to help. Others see families in poverty and see opportunities for profit.</p>
<p>Here are six examples of billion dollar industries which are built on separating poor people, especially people of color, from their money, the reverse Robin Hood.</p>
<p><strong>Check Cashing Businesses&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>Check cashing businesses. Cash a $100 check? At Walmart that will be $3. At TD bank non-customers pay $5 to cash a check from their bank.</p>
<p>Nearly 10 million households containing 25 million people do not have any bank account according to the FDIC. Most because they did not have enough money to keep a minimum balance in their account.</p>
<p>Check cashing business are part of a $100 billion industry of more than 6,500 check cashing businesses in the US, many which also provide money orders, utility bill payments and the like, according to testimony provided to Congress by the industry.</p>
<p><strong>Pawn Shops</strong></p>
<p>More than 30 million people use pawn shop lending services for an average loan of $150. One company, Cash America, has 84 check cashing centers and 859 lending locations in the US, over 260 in Texas alone, extending over $1 billion in pawn loans. In their 2014 annual report they disclose that 30 percent of people never return to redeem the item they pawned and the sale of those items makes up over half of the company revenues. The company paid millions in penalties in 2013 for overcharging members of the armed services and filing inaccurate court pleadings in thousands of cases. The CEO was given $6 million in 2014.</p>
<p><strong>Overdraft Fees</strong></p>
<p>Overdraft fees, when there is not enough money in the checking account or credit card to cover all purchases, is an $11 billion industry for banks, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A recent New York Times article explains how banks sometimes charge overdraft fees even when the customer has enough money in their accounts to cover the purchase and were forced to pay more than a billion dollars for manipulating the order of purchases to maximize the chances that their customers will have to pay extra fees.</p>
<p><strong>Payday Loans</strong></p>
<p>Payday loans are used by people over 15 million times a year and can lead to deep debt problems and usually involve incredible percentages of up to 391 percent according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Pew Charitable Trusts reported pay day loans are a $7 billion dollar a year industry.</p>
<p>The Federal Trade Commission won a $300 million case against two payday lenders who were deceiving borrowers, who, for example, took out a $300 loan thinking it could be repaid for $390 when in fact the lender was charging $975 to pay off the $300 loan. The US Department of Justice indicted former race car driver Scott Tucker on criminal charges for operating a $2 billion nationwide payday loan operation which routinely charged interest on loans for over 4.5 million people of 400 to 700 % per year. The nation&#39;s largest pay day loan company, Advance America, charged nearly 140,000 people in North Carolina annual percentage rates exceeding 450 percent until it was stopped by the state.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/reverse-robin-hood-six-bi_b_9398708.html">MORE&gt;&gt;</a></p>