Brian Chappatta, Columnist

Debt Market Gives Payday Lender a Taste of Its Own Medicine

CNG Holdings plans to sell $310 million of bonds, promising a 12% interest rate to investors who can stomach its business model.

May 20, 2019 at 11:00 AM UTC

By Brian Chappatta

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

Check ’n Go knows a thing or two about high interest rates.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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“The consensus choice for the payday chain that exhibited the least scruples.”

That’s how Gary Rivlin, who spent years exploring the fringes of subprime lending and wrote the book “Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc .— How the Working Poor Became Big Business,” described Check ’n Go in a 2011 article for The Daily Beast. Check ’n Go is one of two payday loan brands run by Cincinnati, Ohio-based CNG Holdings Inc., which has 951 outlets in 26 states. Customers with weak credit scores often use payday lenders to obtain short-term loans at high interest rates.