A payday loan bill sponsored by Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, which would require payday lenders to enter each transaction into a statewide data base passed out of the Banking and Insurance Committee on Wednesday.

Representative Bell has sponsored regulation of the payday loan industry for the last two sessions. The bill would require pay day lenders to enter transactions into a data base which would begin operation on July 1, 2010 and charge the institutions $1 per transaction to pay for the data base.

Representative Greer said the version passed out of committee Wednesday is a start, not an end. “It does get us started so we can better regulate this industry and hopefully help some of our citizens from making some bad financial decisions,” Greer said. “Many who have voted against the bill in the past have said such loans are needed by some segments of the credit market because they can’t get loans from banks. Even proponents of interest caps concede there is a place for the industry.”

The Kentucky payday loan industry represented by FISCA and CFSA have been silent on the new bill.