A loan shark is a person or body that offers loans at extremely high interest rates. The term usually refers to illegal activity, but may also refer to predatory lending with extremely high interest rates such as payday or title loans. Loan sharks sometimes enforce repayment by blackmail or threats of violence. Historically, many moneylenders skirted between legal and extra-legal activity. In the recent western world, loan sharks have been a feature of the criminal underworld.
Read more about Loan Shark: UK Loan Sharks, Non-standard Lenders in The United States, Yamikinyu in Japan, Ah Long in Malaysia and Singapore
Famous quotes containing the words loan and/or shark:
“Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best—
God! but the interest!”
—Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906)
“Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear—
And he shows them pearly white—
Just a jackknife has Macheath, dear—
And he keeps it out of sight.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)