In January of last year, the company settled with 49 states attorneys general who'd started investigating alleged predatory practices at Ameriquest.

NPR: Former Ameriquest Workers Tell of Deception

The new laws emerging in states and cities across America try to label certain loan characteristics as predatory, so as to ban them.

ECONOMIST: Lawmakers, state and federal, are mounting an attack

Many states, such as Colorado and South Carolina, do not have enforcement mechanisms to rein in predatory lenders.

FORBES: Subprime Foreclosures On The Rise?