Payday lenders, which charge exhorbitant fees for short-term loans—often to inner-city residents—are also concerned about limits on their activities. Until now, they've managed to avoid regulation by defining themselves as non-banking entities. The Times story mentions concerns by the industry that a financial reform bill could change that status.

Based on what Consumer Reports has found about such lenders, placing them under more scrutiny is a good thing. "If an entity is providing a financial product to consumers, be it a bank or non-bank, that financial product holds the same risks for consumers," says Lauren Bowne, a staff attorney in CU's West Coast office. A proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency "should have rule-making, examination and enforcement power over all of these finacial products to maintain consistency and ensure that consumers are protected," she added.

Senate Democrats will be going back to the drawing board today to tweak their proposed financial reform bill, after Senate Republicans and one Democrat—Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)—yesterday blocked a floor discussion of the bill. And Goldman Sachs executives spent the day in front of a Senate panel defending their derivatives trading activities and denying fraud allegations brought 10 days ago by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fabrice Tourre, the only Goldman employee mentioned in the SEC charges, flatly denied misleading clients. The SEC charges that he defrauded those investors by neglecting to inform them of another client's role in choosing investments that were expected to go bust, and then betting with Goldman against them.—Tobie Stanger