An executive from the Center for Responsible Lending told the Senate Special Committee on Aging that older Americans represent a quickly growing base of borrowers for payday lenders.

Rebecca Bornè, senior policy counsel for the CRL – a subsidiary of the 50,000-member, $580 million Self-Help Credit Union in Durham, N.C. – told legislators that a number of things make seniors attractive to payday lenders, including the fact that the seniors almost always have regular Social Security income and because older Americans were hit particularly hard by the loss of wealth during the Great Recession and housing downturn.

"Faced with insufficient incomes, many older Americans take on debt to cover medical and living expenses," Bornè wrote in prepared testimony for Wednesday's hearing, adding: "Over the last 20 years, the percentage of households with credit card debt has decreased for every age category except those aged 55 and over, with those aged 75 and older experiencing the largest increase.