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The Cash Store Financial Services Inc. announces class action lawsuit settlement
12/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
EDMONTON, Dec. 5 /CNW/ - The Cash Store Financial Services Inc. ("CashStore Financial") (TSX:CSF), formerly Rentcash Inc., announced today that ithas received court approval of the settlement of a class action lawsuitcommenced in Ontario in 2004 concerning brokerage fees and interest charged tocustomers of The Cash Store and Instaloans.
The settlement does not constitute an admission of liability by CashStore Financial and contains a full and final release of all claims that haveor could have been brought under this action unless class members havespecifically opted out of the settlement.
In accordance with the settlement, Cash Store Financial will establish asettlement fund consisting of $1,500,000.00 in cash and $1,500,000.00 incredit vouchers. The settlement fund will be used to make payments to allcustomers of The Cash Store and Instaloans, outside of Alberta and BritishColumbia, who obtained and repaid a payday loan in full (the "Class"). The credit vouchers may be used to pay either future or existing outstandingbrokerage fees on payday loans brokered by The Cash Store or Instaloans. Thecredit vouchers have no expiry date and are fully transferable. Cash StoreFinancial will also pay the legal fees and costs of the Class.
Cash Store Financial, The Cash Store, and Instaloans operate incompliance with all applicable federal and provincial laws.
About The Cash Store Financial Services Inc. (formerly Rentcash Inc.)
Cash Store Financial is the only payday advance broker in Canada publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:CSF). Cash Store Financial operatesmore than 410 branches across Canada under two banners: The Cash Store andInstaloans.The Cash Store and Instaloans act as brokers to facilitate payday advanceservices to income-earning consumers who may not be able to obtain them fromtraditional banks. Cash Store Financial also provides a private-label debitcard, The Freedom Card, and other ancillary products.Cash Store Financial employs more than 1,500 associates and isheadquartered in Edmonton, Alberta.This News Release contains "forward-looking information" within themeaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation.Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information withrespect to our objectives, strategies, operations and financial results,competition as well initiatives to grow revenue or reduce retention payments.Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use offorward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", or "does not expect","is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends","anticipates", or "does not anticipate", or "believes" or variations of suchwords and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may","could", "would", "might", or "will be taken", "occur", or "be achieved". Inparticular this News Release contains forward-looking statements in connectionwith the Cash Store Financials goals and strategic priorities, introduction ofproducts, share repurchase initiatives and branch openings. Forward-lookinginformation is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and otherfactors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance orachievements of Cash Store Financial, to be materially different from thoseexpressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including, but notlimited to, changes in economic and political conditions, legislative orregulatory developments, technological developments, third-party arrangements,competition, litigation, risks associated with but not limited to, marketconditions, and other factors described in our Annual Information Form ("AIF")dated August 28, 2008 under the heading "Risk Factors". All materialassumptions used in making forward-looking statements are based onmanagement's knowledge of current business conditions and expectations offuture business conditions and trends, including our knowledge of the currentcredit, interest rate and liquidity conditions affecting us and the Canadianeconomy. Although we believes the assumptions used to make such statements arereasonable at this time and have attempted to identify in our continuousdisclosure documents important factors that could cause actual results todiffer materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, theremay be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated orintended. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied by us in makingforward-looking statements, include without limitation, factors andassumptions regarding our continued ability to fund our payday loan business,rates of customer defaults, relationships with, and payments to, third partylenders, demand for our products, as well as our operating cost structure andcurrent consumer protection regulations. There can be no assurance that suchinformation will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future eventscould differ materially from those anticipated in such information.Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-lookinginformation. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking information,except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
For further information: on Cash Store Financial please contact: Gordon
J. Reykdal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cash Store Financial, (780)
408-5118; or Nancy Bland, Chief Financial Officer, Cash Store Financial, (780)
732-5683