But Consumer Minister Ed Davey said tougher measures could push people into the hands of illegal loan sharks.

BBC: Payday loans debt quadrupled, advisory service says

So companies are still wrestling with how to handle old loans and whether the "cashless exercise" of executive stock grants is an illegal loan.

FORBES: The Lending Game

Patkus testified that the check was paid in a complicated series of financial transactions that led to the illegal loan that sent McDougal to prison in the earlier Whitewater trial.

CNN: The trials and tribulations of Susan McDougal

For example, racial discrimination against an applicant for a bank loan is illegal.

ECONOMIST: Regulators are having to rethink their brief

The main reason for this hope appears to be that in 1991 Mr Bush's father threatened to suspend loan guarantees to Israel over the issue of illegal settlements.

ECONOMIST: Changing camels in mid-dune

It was mostly illegal in Christian medieval Europe to charge interest on a loan of money, for much the same reasons Islamic law forbids it: That, as money is intrinsically unproductive, it is ethically wrong to make money from money.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Gold Club owner Kaplan and his associates are also accused of credit card fraud, money laundering, extortion, loan sharking, obstruction of justice, bribing two Atlanta police officers and having illegal mob ties, including paying protection money to the Gambino crime family.

CNN: Jury picked in racketeering trial of strip club owner