Payday loans to California seniors tripled in a year, according to a report by the state’s Department of Business Oversight issued Thursday.

An agency spokesperson said he had no idea why, and as with so many other things that percolate in California first, is it a harbinger of a national trend?

Seniors 62 and over took out 2.7 million payday loans in 2016 compared with fewer than 945,000 the year before.

But while Californian seniors were borrowing more from payday outlets with an average annual interest rate of 372 percent, other residents in the state were pulling back.

Total payday loans sunk by a quarter in the year from $4.17 billion in 2015 to $3.14 billion in 2016.

One trend that has been a mainstay of the payday business, the reliance on repeat customers, showed up en force in the California results. Borrowers who took out 10 payday loans in 2016 exceeded those who took out just one.