Republic Bancorp, which is providing funds for refunds loans for two tax preparation chains, planned to drop some independent preparers as it moved into the 2010 tax season. The company did not cite any relationship between that decision and its agreeing to provide increased funding to the Jackson Hewitt and Liberty Tax operations. However, its report about financial results for 2009 said that an increase in anticipated business from the chains would be offset by the decline in income from the independents. Read more...