which simply reinforces the idea that it's not a market. credit cards, too, are generally capped.

the rate always maxes out the legislated cap. so it's not really dependent.

Yes the market power is also one sided, capping the rate also doesn't really help without guaranteeing more access to credit.

The best thing is:

a) UBI, just hand out a tiny bit of money to make poor people more liquid, because liquidity kills, not insolvency

b) postal banking, because even shittier than a payday loan is high fee check cashing without a pretense of debt!

Poor people hopefully at the point can save up a paychecks worth of buffer in their bank account, and don't need postal bank loans to replay payday loans.