Loan shark
Under loan shark ( English loan shark , shylock , gombeen-man ) is understood in the industry commonly known as economic agents who -prime borrowers loans at particularly adverse credit conditions offer and especially usurious demand.
General
Natural or legal persons come into question as economic subjects who act as loan sharks . Loan sharks often represent a substitute for the lending business of credit institutions that do not want to (any longer) grant loans to certain debtors for credit reasons, or loan sharks take advantage of a bank customer's fear of having to apply to banks for a loan . Loan sharks exploit the excessive credit risk expressed in poor creditworthiness , in particular to demand excessive interest rates that exceed the threshold of usury . However, this threshold to usurious interest is an interest barrier which , if exceeded, judges the loan agreement with a loan shark as immoral and therefore void .
etymology
"Loan shark" is a slang metaphor for a dubious lender who appears outside of the government-controlled financial system . The word is a combination of “credit” and “shark”. The basic word “ shark ” describes a predatory fish living in the sea , which is considered to be particularly aggressive and dangerous. In connections such as stock market shark , finance shark , loan shark or rental shark , there are formations with the suffix "-hai", which denotes people who ruthlessly and unscrupulously enrich themselves . In this metaphorical use of the suffix “-hai”, a semantic component of the free form “shark” is found in a modified way, namely the typical property of predators to be guided exclusively by their instincts in order to ensure their own survival. Applied to people, this property has a clearly negative connotation .
history
The concept of Shylock evolved from the known as the "card shark" cheats ( english card shark ), the times of the "Wild West" betrayed his teammates in the 19th century playing cards. The metaphor for the shark emerged from the public impression of a predatory fish attacking humans.
William Shakespeare has a Jewish loan shark named Shylock appear in the Christian-dominated society of “ The Merchant of Venice ” (October 1600). Merchant Antonio got into debt with the Jewish loan shark Shylock, who, contrary to his usual interest rate practice, offers to forego loan interest. As a substitute - apparently for fun - in the event of repayment problems, he demands that Shylock may claim "a pound of meat" from Antonios' living body.
The Argentine writer Agustín Cuzzani incorporated Shakespeare's subject matter into his play "A Pound of Meat" ( Spanish Una libra de carne ) in 1954 . The merchant Elfas Beluver, who is ruthlessly exploited by his various employers and blamed by his wife for the financial misery, falls victim to the loan shark Tomás Shylock García, who as a creditor inexorably collects excessive repayments for as long as possible and then mercilessly in court To collect meat from his debtor.
The second English expression for the loan shark ( English gombeen-man ) goes back to the Irish loan rate ( Irish gaimbín ), which weighed heavily on the poor in the 19th century. In Rotwelsch a usurer is called a "tie maker"; an executioner is also referred to as such here, because the tie is the description for a rope. The word first appeared in 1893. In old documents, the loan shark is also called Karbach ; presumably because he (with the frivolous defaulters karbatschen Karbatsche beat) left.
Since July 1893, § 302a StGB a. F. A criminal offense for usury, anyone who, while exploiting the emergency, carelessness or inexperience because of a loan, promised himself or a third party pecuniary benefits that exceeded the usual interest rate in such a way that the pecuniary benefits were noticeably disproportionate to the performance. The provision was dropped in July 2017 by the law reforming the criminal asset recovery .
When, on April 26, 1963, the ZDF series Rehearsal broadcast a program under the title Usury or not Usury , with which it spoke out against grievances in the credit market , one company was dubbed a "loan shark" or a "tie maker". Here, the program criticized the business conduct based on the proven usury; the usurious company lost the complaint before the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) for criticism that was harmful to the business because it was a matter of statements based on true facts. In another case, the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) considered the expression “loan shark” to be covered by freedom of the press . The warning about loan sharks in the print media is subject to the freedom of the press and does not represent a derogatory criticism of the branch of credit brokers.
species
As loan sharks occur individuals or businesses in appearance that their loans as "emergency loans" without any special credit check without Schufa - request or as unsecured loans advertise. They exploit the plight and ignorance of business inexperienced or financially distressed citizens or their fear of the threshold. The business name of the loan sharks ranges from " financial brokers " to loan intermediaries who broker small loans at exorbitant interest rates. However, a large proportion of the financial brokers or credit brokers are reputable. In the case of personal loans , too , private lenders can act as loan sharks if the borrower is indecently gagged .
Goals and methods of loan sharks
The goals and methods of the loan sharks do not match those of the legal finance brokers or credit intermediaries. The loan is granted to customers with poor credit ratings . The probability of default on loan repayment is high from the start. The lenders work without a banking license from the banking supervisory authority (in Germany the BaFin ) and thus illegally. The repayment of the agreed loan, including interest, is not a priority for the loan sharks, who are more interested in usurious interest rates, the provision of loan collateral and / or the suppression of borrowers. It is important to the loan sharks to disguise the financing costs incurred by granting a loan through processing fees , commissions , residual debt insurance and other things. However, since most of these ancillary costs are to be included in the effective annual interest rate for commercial or business loan sharks in accordance with Section 6 PAngV , the consumer can see the usurious tendency when making comparisons . It will not always be possible to prove that the loan shark has consciously exploited a predicament to demand excessive interest from the customer. Loan sharks often seek to work with debt collection agencies when there is a risk of bad debt due to the poor creditworthiness of the borrower . When collecting due installments or repayments, threats include illegal measures and even violence . Illegal lending is also often related to organized crime .
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Büschgen , Das kleine Bank-Lexikon , Verlag Wirtschaft und Finanz im Schäffer-Pöschel-Verlag, 3rd edition 2006. ISBN 3-87881-180-2 , p. 584
- ^ Scientific advice of the Duden editorial team (ed.), The large dictionary of the German language , 4th edition, 2012, entry "-hai"
- ↑ Hans-Dieter Seibert, English economic terms: meaning and connections , 2012, p. 62 f.
- ^ Tereza Rodríguez Bolet, Resonancias de Shakespeare y Kafka en 'Una libra de carne' de Augustín Cuzzani , in: Discurso literario 5/1, 1987, p. 93
- ↑ Tomás de Bhaldraithe, Éigse , Volume 17, National University of Ireland, 1977, pp. 109–113
- ↑ Sonja Steiner-Welz, Die deutsche Stadt , Volume 3, 2006, p. 401
- ^ Alfred Schirmer, Dictionary of German Business Language - on Historical Foundations , 1991, p. 112
- ^ BGH, judgment of January 14, 1969, Az .: VI ZR 196/67
- ↑ BVerfGE 60, 234 , 239 f.
- ↑ BVerfGE 60, 234, 239
- ↑ Reinhold Sellien, Dr. Gabler's Wirtschafts-Lexikon , Volume 1, 1977, Sp. 1493 f.
- ^ Gerhard Merk, Finanzlexikon , University of Siegen, November 2014, p. 1109 f.
