"Predominant economic interest" -- CashCall, Inc. v. Morrisey

PLA today posts (alongside the already-posted public WebBank deals) a petition for certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court a few months back in the CashCall rent-a-charter / true lender litigation. In this case, West Virginia’s Attorney General successfully alleged that CashCall was the “de facto lender” based on its “predominant economic interest” in installment loans and that its loans violated the state’s usury laws, despite the involvement of a South Dakota banking partner. Although the petition was denied last month, it’s useful for its collection of relevant authorities and statement of arguments on the “predominant economic interest” test as well as the relevant preemption issues. We hope this post is useful to parties that are exploring the establishment of similar arrangements or that are modifying those established previously.