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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — In his run for Connecticut governor, Republican businessman Bob Stefanowski touts his stints with blue-chip companies like General Electric and UBS Investment Bank. But the role getting all the attention is his most recent job as CEO of a global payday lending company.,Rivals have piled on criticism of Stefanowski’s involvement with a company offering loan products that are not even legal in Connecticut. In the GOP primary, one candidate’s advertisements dubbed him “Payday Bob.”,Payday loans — unsecured, short-term loans that typically allow lenders to collect repayment from a customer’s checking account regardless of whether or not they have the money — are void and unenforceable in Connecticut, unless they’re made by certain exempt entities such as banks, credit unions and small loan licensees.

Local loan companies can charge only up to a 36 percent annual percentage rate. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, 15 states and the District of Columbia have enacted double-digit rate caps on payday loans.,When Stefanowski went to work for the company in November 2014, he left his position as chief financial officer of UBS Investment Bank in London. DFC had recently agreed to refund more than 6,000 customers in the U.K. who received loans for amounts they couldn’t afford to pay back, following a crackdown on payday lending practices by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority amid calls for tougher regulation by anti-poverty advocates.,In the first month of the job, Stefanowski said he fired 20 of DFC’s 30 top employees. About 147,000 additional customers needed loans refunded in 2015 during Stefanowski’s watch.payday loans slidell la
He said that happened after one of his executives discovered unfair collection practices during an internal review he ordered because the company had “done a lot of bad things” before he arrived.,Luz Urrutia, who worked for Stefanowski as the company’s U.S. CEO, said she had been skeptical about working for a payday lender but Stefanowski sold her on a vision of responsible lending for underserved populations.

She said she was ultimately proud of the work they did, including a loan product capped at 36 percent in California, but the company owners were not fully on board.,In December 2017, the nonpartisan group Americans for Financial Reform noted in a study of private equity investment in payday loan companies that DFC was still offering loans at extremely high rates, including a 14-day loan in Hawaii at a rate of as much as 456 percent interest.,His chief rival, Democrat Ned Lamont, another wealthy businessman who founded a cable television company, has leveled steady criticism at Stefanowski about the DFC job, calling payday lenders the economy’s “bottom fishers.” Stefanowski has fired back at Lamont, accusing him of personally profiting from the payday lending industry and calling him a hypocrite.
Stefanowski is referring to Oak Investment Partners, where Lamont’s wife Annie works as a managing director. Oak invested in a British payday loan company.
Lamont’s campaign has called the ad false and said the investment was not under Annie Lamont’s purview.,It’s unclear how much impact Stefanowski’s payday loan history is having on his first-time run for public office.

He defeated four fellow Republicans in the August primary, despite a bevy of TV ads and mailers bringing up DFC Global.,A recent Quinnipiac University Poll shows Stefanowski has some challenges when it comes to likeability among voters, especially women. Among likely voters, 39 percent have a favorable opinion of Stefanowski, while 44 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Among women, 50 percent view him unfavorably.
The survey did not ask about Stefanowski’s payday loan past.,Sajdah Sharief, a retiree and registered Democrat who is leaning toward voting for Lamont, said she would be reluctant to support somebody who worked at a payday loan company.

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