CRL in the News

Big U.S. banks have generated about $9 billion annually in revenue from overdrafts, ATMs and other fees in recent years, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, or CRL. The fees have become somewhat of a cash cow for banks over the past 20 years, some experts have said. Taylor Roberson, a fintech regulation expert at CRL, said Bankrate’s survey confirms what researchers have known for years about millennials baring the brunt of banking fees.

Jaylon Herbin, outreach associate at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), praised this week’s decision by the Biden Administration. “We commend the President for safeguarding student loan borrowers at a time of profound economic uncertainty,” said Herbin. “The extension of the payment pause is a critical step toward restoring economic stability for borrowers and their families. We urge the Biden Administration to continue extending the payment pause until the pandemic and the associated economic crisis have been overcome.”

“We know that 10% of discretionary income is quite high for many families,” said Julia Barnard, a researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit organization that produces research and policy advocacy to protect consumers from predatory lending. On the campaign trail, President Biden proposed lowering that to 5% of a person's discretionary income, which could reduce a monthly loan payment by 50% or more for borrowers. That has not happened yet, however.

Overdraft fees are big money-makers for banks. Before the pandemic, JPMorgan Chase earned about $1.5 billion annually in overdraft fees, Bank of America made $1.1 billion, Wells Fargo collected $1.3 billion and Capital One charged about $150 million, according to a report by the Center for Responsible Lending.

“Bank overdraft fees cause particular harm to low-income consumers and communities of color, who are already disproportionately excluded from the banking mainstream,” said a 2020 report from the Center for Responsible Lending. While the typical overdraft fee is $35, the report said, “the cost to the bank of processing an overdraft transaction, particularly in today’s highly automated environment, is very low.”

“Not only do they have less wealth to borrow on to pay back loans because of the racial wealth gap, but the underfunding of HBCUs compound the financial challenges which result in higher debt for students who attend these schools,” said Rep. Alma Adams, who appeared on a panel hosted by the Center for Responsible Lending(CRL) on Thursday.

Listen to a discussion of the state of the national student loan debt crisis and some relief that the Biden administration has made available.

It’s hard to pinpoint when banks began charging overdraft fees in the US. Vox reached out to JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America to ask when they started charging account maintenance and overdraft fees, but none of them shared when they implemented these charges. According to a 2020 report from the Center for Responsible Lending, banks historically declined debit card charges when account holders lacked the funds to cover charges. But over time, banks — at the urging of software consultants who were promoting overdraft programs on a contingency fee basis — began allowing overdraft

“All of those risks are the very same risks we talk about when we talk about payday lending,” Borné said. When a borrower uses a payday loan, they also give the lender access to their checking account either by writing a check dated to the borrower’s payday or by giving the lender electronic authorization to debit the account on pay day.

Now, a group of consumer advocates is asking the Biden-era CFPB to reverse that decision. Earlier this month, a coalition led by the National Consumer Law Center and the Center for Responsible Lending, wrote to the agency urging officials to regulate earned wage access products as credit.