Dutton sees check-cashing stores and other short-term lenders as predators who single out the most vulnerable - the poor. She said 15 percent of the people who come to Community Action Services and Food Bank - Dutton is executive director - regularly use such lenders.

"It is unfortunate that the people with the least amount of income utilize the lenders with the highest interest rates," Dutton said.

So, it was no surprise that Dutton applauds the city's interest. Provo would become the second Utah County city to regulate the lenders, joining Salt Lake County and communities in limiting where and how many check-cashing operations can set up shop.

While advocates for the poor support city ordinances, they warn that the quotas won't make much of a difference - as long as the businesses can still charge annual interest rates in excess of 500 percent.

But the Utah Consumer Lending Association, a trade group representing payday lenders, says cities are actually hurting people who can't go anywhere else to get emergency loans.

"Competition in Utah among payday lenders is what is best for the consumer," the association said in an e-mail statement in response to questions from The Salt Lake Tribune.

"Endorsing a policy that would limit payday-lending competition in an already highly regulated market does not help the customer."

But Cindy Richards is willing to look at restrictions to protect low-income residents.

Richards, Provo's Municipal Council chairwoman, asked the city to look into the issue after receiving complaints from constituents in her central Provo district. Some 13 payday lenders are licensed in the city, and Richards said her constituents worry that more are popping up near low-income neighborhoods.

"Some in Provo would be surprised at the level of crisis some people have to live with in my area," Richards said.

All the cities with payday-lender restrictions have a quota of one for every 10,000 people.

In Salt Lake County, the stores can't be closer than 600 feet to each other.

Orem goes a bit further; check cashers have to put a half-mile between their businesses.

Orem City Manager James Reams said the ordinance was enacted last year with relatively minor opposition from the lending industry.

"We're up to the limit," Reams said. "Those who want to come in have to wait for the population to grow or someone to close."

Linda Hilton, director of the Coalition of Religious Communities, said such ordinances are good in that they keep a community from appearing blighted, but they don't fully protect people from what she sees as predatory lenders.

Nor does relying on market forces to police the industry, as payday lenders say, help people avoid crippling interest payments.

"There is a buyer beware, but people get into financial products they don't understand," Hilton said. "Look at subprime lending."

dmeyers@sltrib.com

Controlling

the spread

Local governments that have enacted ordinances regulating payday lenders:

* Salt Lake County

* Draper

* Midvale

* Orem

* Sandy

* South Salt Lake

* South Jordan

* Taylorsville

* West Jordan

* West Valley City