American Indian tribe buys Mission-based payday loan servicing firm MacFarlane Group

The Otoe-Missouria Tribe, an American Indian tribe in Oklahoma, announced that it completed its acquisition of MacFarlane Group, a Mission company that assisted the tribe with its payday lending operation.

John Shotton, chairman of the Otoe-Missouria, wrote in an Oct. 10 letter to the tribe that it had partnered with MacFarlane Group for the last six years to assist its American Web Loan business with underwriting, software development, marketing and call center support.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“By bringing in these operations in-house, the tribe will be able to increase the profitability of our online lending businesses,” Shotton’s letter said.

Shotton said that the additional revenue would go toward the tribe’s health, education and social programs, along with infrastructure improvements.

Mark Curry founded the MacFarlane Group in 2010, according to the firm’s website. According to a Bloomberg News article published in 2014, MacFarlane Group generated more than $100 million in revenue from American Web Loan and another website owned by the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, with the tribe keeping 1 percent.

Curry was also chief executive of Geneva Roth Ventures, a Mission payday loan enterprise that had been scrutinized by various state regulators before it stopped doing business.

The Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, for example, ordered Geneva Roth in 2013 to stop doing business with its residents. Connecticut claimed the company extended loans, with interest rates reaching 700 percent, without a license in that state. Geneva Roth and MacFarlane Group operated out of the same Mission office address.

Curry also founded the Online Lenders Alliance, an industry trade association. He could not be reached for comment.

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "American Indian tribe buys Mission-based payday loan servicing firm MacFarlane Group."