A bill that would allow an out-of-state company to move into Arizona and charge triple-digit interest rates for unsecured loans appears to have new life after being pronounced dead on Monday.

Legislation that would allow financial-services companies to lend up to $3,000 with annual interest rates up to 113 percent was defeated by the House Banking and Insurance Committee earlier this week.

Bill sponsor Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, said at the time that the bill was dead. But Biggs, chairman of the Transportation Committee, has scheduled the same legislation to be heard during a 9 a.m. hearing today in his committee.

The bill, proposed the past four years, is being pushed by San Antonio-based Brundage Management, which oversees 220 loan offices in nine states under the name Sun Loan Co. Calls to Brundage were not returned Wednesday.

The most recent move comes as payday-loan companies, which are competitors of Sun Loan, could go out of business next year when their licensing expires.

Voters in November, by an overwhelming margin, rejected a ballot measure pushed by payday-loan companies that would have allowed them to stay in business indefinitely and charge annual interest rates of 391 percent.

Biggs, who could not be reached Wednesday, has said there will be a need for consumers to get unsecured loans if payday lenders go out of business.

He plans to use House Bill 2071, which originally had to do with traffic-photo systems and defensive-driving schools, as the vehicle to move the short-term loan interest bill through the Republican-controlled Legislature. Legislators are able to do this through a so-called strike-everything amendment, which replaces language in an original bill and is commonly used in the Arizona Legislature to get difficult legislation passed.

Kelly Griffith, outreach director for Arizonans for Responsible Lending, said the legislation would create more "predatory lending" and give an out-of-state company a "special deal."

The legislation would allow Brundage or other companies to exceed the 36 percent annual interest rate cap for loans. Currently, payday-loan companies are exempt from that limit.

Reach the reporter at craig.harris@arizonarepublic.com.