CRL in the News

As noted earlier, many major banks offer Bank On accounts. All told, these accounts are available at 40 percent of bank branches nationwide, according to David Rothstein, senior principal at CFE Fund, a nonprofit that leads the Bank On initiative and certifies these accounts. Still, these accounts might not be prominently displayed online, or consumers may get steered toward other types of accounts, says Peter Smith, senior researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending.

“It highlights the problems that we saw and were talking about all along. It’s another newer, more flashy example of the issues with the program,” said Ashley Harrington, federal advocacy director at the Center for Responsible Lending. “For us, the problem was not just about who was getting the loans but who wasn’t getting the loans.”

Small-dollar, short-term lenders, unburdened by a federal maximum interest rate, can charge borrowers rates of 400% or more for their loans. But more states are bringing that number down by setting rate caps to curb high-interest lending. Currently, 18 states and Washington, D.C. , have laws that limit short-term loan rates to 36% or lower, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. Other states are weighing similar legislation.

Listen to an interview with Kerri Smith of the South Carolina Fair Lending Alliance on Rhonda Rawlings on 107.3 JAMZ as they discuss the dangers of predatory lending in South Carolina.

Speed counts and any sluggishness is a particular problem now, Klein said. “That time delay costs American living on the edge millions, billions in fees,” he added. Banks collected approximately $11.7 billion in overdraft fees in 2019, according to study last year from the Center for Responsible Lending.

“While the current payment pause and interest waiver has helped millions of borrowers… [it] cannot be a substitute for across-the-board student debt cancellation,” Ashley Harrington, a higher education expert at the Center for Responsible Lending, told Yahoo Finance. “And while it is great that the time in suspension counts towards IDR and PSLF, we know that these and other programs are desperately in need of improvement as very few borrowers have actually received relief through them.”

“While some of today's schemes might be dressed up a little bit fancier with the fintech aura than the older schemes, they still have the same rent-a-bank evasion,” said Lisa Stifler, director of state policy at the Center for Responsible Lending.

“Systemic discrimination continues to limit housing opportunity for Black and brown communities and stunts our country’s economic growth,” said Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president with the Center for Responsible Lending.

A wealth gap also persists based on education level, a separate report from the Center for Responsible Lending noted. For those who have a bachelor's degree or higher, the typical white household had $397,000 in wealth, while for Latinos it was $112,700 and for Blacks, it was $72,450. For whites with a high school education or less, household wealth was $105,590.

The Biden administration is moving to reinstate two key fair housing rules that were rolled back under President Trump, according to notices published this week by the Office of Management and Budget. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is looking to restore a 2013 rule outlining its use of the “disparate impact” legal standard in fair-lending cases and the 2015 “affirmatively furthering fair housing” rule meant to guide local jurisdictions on compliance with the Fair Housing Act.