Our own Adam Doster is on the ground in Springfield today and reports back with some good news: the Illinois Senate last night passed HB 537, a measure that aims to close a destructive loophole in the 2005 Payday Loan Reform Act.  The bill has changed numbers since we wrote about it in March, but our understanding is that the central provisions remain the same:

[I]t would cap interest rates on installment loans at 99 percent APR, index the loans based on a borrower's ability to pay, and would require loans to be paid off in equal monthly installments with no balloon payments.

Adam talked to Citizen Action/Illinois co-director Lynda DeLaforgue today.  She expressed cautious optimism that the bill would make it through the House in the next 48 hours, but added: "With this issue, you never know."