Anyone not yet enrolled to offer refund anticipation loans for the 2011 season will find this year's options very limited. With Chase having dropped out earlier this year and Republic Bank reporting it will have only a third of the funds it offered last year, another avenue has disappeared as River City Bank has closed its enrollment.
The Louisville, Ky.-based company has posted this notice on the Web site of its Tax Division: "River City Bank has closed enrollment for the 2011 tax season. Applications are no longer being accepted."
That leaves Ohio Valley Bank as the only other financial institution believed to be in the RAL business. It had been anticipated that Meta Financial would fund loans for the Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, but the later company removed enrollment for RALs from its Web site after regulators told Meta it needed written permission to expand any loan programs.
The market is further complicated with H&R Block's having sued HSBC Bank for allegedly not taking steps that would let its RAL program move forward for tax season.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind