CORRECTED - Rent-A-Center asks charity to quit coalition - WSJ
(Corrects 2nd paragraph to make clear that Rent-A-Center has not pledged $500,000 specifically to food banks in Ohio)
NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Rent-A-Center Inc (RCII.O), which offers payday loans, told an Ohio food bank group it would pull its charitable contributions unless the association quits a coalition pressing for a crackdown on the payday loan business, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.
The report said Rent-A-Center officials had called America's Second Harvest and its Ohio affiliates, saying the company, which also sells rent-to-own appliances and furniture, did not want any of its $500,000 pledge to food bank network America's Second Harvest going to hunger programs in Ohio unless the local food banks withdrew from the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending.
The coalition has been pressing the state legislature to limit the interest rates and fees payday lenders could charge their consumers.
Anne Goodman, chairman of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbank, was quoted in the report as saying that endorsing the coalition was an error and a violation of its own rules.
The Ohio Association, Ohio Coalition and Rent-A-Center were not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; Editing by David Holmes)
