On February 27, 2019, CfA submitted a comment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) warning the agency about seemingly unbiased academic studies that have been bought and paid for by the payday lending industry and have been used to lobby against regulations to protect consumers from payday lending companies.

On Monday, February 25, 2019, CfA published a report, Academic for Hire, revealing that a lawyer for the payday lending industry, Hilary Miller, paid and worked closely with Kennesaw State University Professor Jennifer Priestley to develop a study to use to lobby against government regulations that would protect consumers from payday lenders. Similarly, on November 2, 2015, CfA released a report, Academic Deception, revealing a similar instance of Mr. Miller working with a professor at Arkansas Tech University to develop a paper arguing that payday loans do not leave consumers trapped in a cycle of debt. CfA’s research suggests that the payday lending industry is trying to hoodwink policymakers under the guise of academic research.