There are two main types of abusive lending schemes that
laws seek to regulate, namely predatory lending and usury. These types of
lending schemes can be present whether one is obtaining a personal or
commercial loan. The first type involves a false show of generosity where the
lender grants loans to the borrower until the latter is placed at a completely
helpless situation against the lender such that the lender is free to raise
interests or take the borrower’s properties in as payment of the loan. Such
kinds of lenders are sometimes referred to as loan sharks.
Usury, on the other hand, is one where the lender charges
interests that are excessive. Before laws were passed regulating this lending
abuse scheme, opportunistic lenders would charge usurious interest rates until
the borrower loses all his properties and become even poorer than when the loan
was first obtained. Today, some countries have passed legislations regulating
imposition of interest rates on loans granted by both private individual
lenders as well as banks. In some jurisdictions the imposition of extremely
high interest rates may not be prohibited by any law but the same may be
questioned in courts as being unconscionable or “shocking to the senses.”
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