CRL in the News

An additional problem for these owners is that their businesses are more likely to be sole proprietorships, according to Ashley Harrington, senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending. "When we're talking about businesses of color, most of them are very small businesses. So they're sole proprietorships or they have less than 10 employees or in fact more likely to be a sole proprietorship than any of the other small businesses," Harrington said.

Whitney Barkley-Denney from the Center for Responsible Lending said the federal government can and should force the loan servicers to follow the rules. “They have multimillion dollar contracts with these servicers and, by the way, it’s taxpayer money that’s paying these servicers to properly service student loans and so the Department of Education absolutely has a role in enforcing their contracts,” Barkley-Denney said.

The federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program is mainly lending to existing customers, and many business owners of color lack such relationships. As a result, a recent report by the Center for Responsible Lending found that 95% of black-owned businesses, 91% of Latino-owned businesses and 75% of Asian-owned businesses “stand close to no chance of receiving a PPP loan through a mainstream bank or credit union.”

Many of the suits end in automatic victories for collectors, the report found. That’s probably because consumers sued for debts rarely have lawyers. And for various reasons, debtors often fail to show up for hearings. People may not be able to afford a lawyer, may be unable to take time off work or may not have been properly notified, said Lisa Stifler, state policy director at the Center for Responsible Lending.

A recent survey by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) found the odds are against businesses owned by people of color. A report done by the group estimates “roughly 95% of Black-owned businesses, 91% of Latino-owned businesses, 91% of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander-owned businesses, and 75% of Asian-owned businesses stand close to no chance of receiving a PPP loan through a mainstream bank or credit union.” “The gap in opportunity and income and wealth is going to grow, which is not good for the economy in general, and not good for us as a society,” said Ellen Harnick, Executive Vice

They are, and it is. Although the government is not collecting or releasing data on the racial makeup of SBA-aid recipients—leaving think tanks and advocacy groups to fill in the gaps—the Center for Responsible Lending has estimated that 95 percent of black-owned businesses, 91 percent of Latino-owned businesses, 91 percent of businesses owned by Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders, and 75 percent of Asian-owned businesses have “close to no chance” of getting an emergency loan through a mainstream financial institution. Even with congressional tweaks, the program is amplifying existing

During the first round of funding provided for small businesses, borrowers seeking Paycheck Protection Program loans were required to work with banks already participating in the US Small Business Administration's (SBA) primary loan program, thereby excluding firms that worked with smaller community banks. Moreover, Congress allocated just $10 million to the Minority Business Development Agency. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, these conditions may have prevented 95% of black-owned businesses from receiving loans.

The Trump administration’s economic response has been a disaster too. They’ve done exactly what we feared from the beginning: bailed out the wealthy and well-connected while leaving worthy small businesses out in the cold. A publicly-traded real-estate trust that owns a Ritz Carlton got $38 million in the initial round of “small business” funding. Meanwhile, the Center for Responsible Lending estimates that more than 90 percent of small businesses owned by people of color will get nothing.

Ellen Harnick, vicepresidenta ejecutiva del Center for Responsible Lending, dijo que los bancos comerciales han dado prioridad a sus clientes actuales y a empresas más acaudaladas al gestionar préstamos, excluyendo a las más pequeñas y a la mayoría de pequeños negocios cuyos propietarios son de minoría étnica.

The average person in North Carolina owes more than $36,000 in student loans and nearly 17% haven't made a payment for 90 days or more. That was before the pandemic hit, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. About 1.2 million people are in student loan debt totaling $44 billion in North Carolina.