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This is an Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI) data project. The annotated article can be viewed on the Publisher's website. You will need to use the Chrome or Edge browser with the Hypothesis extension installed to view the ATI annotations Data Generation. My primary data come from archival financial documents available from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I examine documents from each publicly traded payday lender for their duration of their requirements to report to the SEC (or through 2014 if filing is ongoing). The SEC requires all publicly traded firms to “disclose meaningful financial and other information to the public” as part of its mission to protect investors. (see: https://www.sec.gov/Article/whatwedo.html) As part of this, the SEC makes the financial records publicly available on the EDGAR Database (https://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml), which permits archival searches of registrations, reports, and forms. There are several types of filings that publicly traded firms must provide that are useful for this study and referred to in analysis: S-1: Registration Statement. This is the initial registration of new securities (i.e. stocks) submitted by companies who are planning to go public. 10-K: Annual Report. This is filed 60 – 90 days after the end of each fiscal year. 10-Q: Quarterly Report. This is filed 40-45 days after the end of each fiscal quarter. 8-K: Current Report. A Current Report can be filed at any time of the year to notify investors of events that may be important for them. This includes entry into or termination of “a material definitive agreement,” including changes to their commercial credit agreement. Exhibits are also included with the above filings. Important for this research are the Exhibit 10 documents. Exhibit 10 filings pertain to material contracts, including the contracts for commercial credit agreements between the companies and banks reviewed here. In the EDGAR Database, searching by Exhibits is not possible. Instead, researchers must go to the Company Page, select the filing type (S-1, 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K), and then view related exhibits [see Doherty-Bea_Exhibit Search Process.pdf]. This limitation required that I read the filings first to identify when a new or amended/restated credit agreement was arranged between each payday lender and the banks. This was easiest to do by reading all Annual Reports (10-Ks) first. If a commercial credit agreement was amended or restated during the fiscal year, the dat...
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