Comment Letter

"As pastors and faith leaders, our sacred text teaches us to care for our neighbors and see the dignity of all of God’s people. Of all the issues confronting Americans, none is more basic than that of housing. Whether renting or owning a home, every family needs a place to come home to at the end of the day. It is where our children are raised, meals are prepared, and family milestone moments are celebrated. " Continue reading the comment letter. (PDF)

The proposed rule will have a toxic effect on the mortgage lending industry. The Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact doctrine has played a critical role in making fair housing available to all, while at the same time making the lending industry better at evaluating creditworthiness. A ban on unjustified disparate impact has encouraged the lending industry to systematically scrutinize its procedures and requirements to ensure that lenders more precisely measure creditworthiness and lending practices do not have unnecessary discriminatory impact. Thus, financial products are more widely...

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, National Urban League, and UnidosUS appreciate the opportunity to respond to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on the Qualified Mortgage (QM) definition under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Ability to Repay / Qualified Mortgage regulation (ATR/QM). Our comment refers to a paper published by CRL entitled A Smarter Qualified Mortgage Can Benefit Borrowers, Taxpayers, and the Economy (July 2019). Rather than repeat...

The 232 undersigned consumer, civil and human rights, labor, community and legal services organizations from all 50 states and the District of Columbia submit the following comments on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) proposed debt collection rules. The rule as proposed does far more to protect abusive debt collectors than consumers. The proposal opens consumers up to harassment, abuse and violations of their privacy by telephone, email, text and other means; obscures information about consumers’ rights; and protects debt collectors and collection attorneys who...

The undersigned consumer and civil rights organizations appreciate the opportunity to submit comments on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) proposed rule on debt collection. As organizations dedicated to eliminating abusive financial practices – particularly focused on communities of color and low- to moderate-income consumers – we are deeply concerned about the proposed rule’s content and impact. Without significant changes, we believe the rule will perpetuate abusive practices, harm already struggling families, and widen the racial wealth gap. We urge the Bureau to...

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) files this comment in response to the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed rule that would amend the Borrower Defense to Repayment provision of the Higher Education Act (HEA) and rescind and rewrite previously promulgated regulations from 2016. CRL is extremely concerned about the Department’s decision to rewrite rules meant to protect students and taxpayers from unscrupulous for-profit colleges and its tacit refusal to hold these schools accountable for their predatory tactics and activities. Moreover, CRL finds the Department’s current proposal...

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) files this comment in response to the above referenced U.S. Department of Education’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) which rescinds the 2014 gainful employment (GE) regulations. CRL is deeply troubled by the Department’s decision to do away with these important accountability requirements that protect both the welfare of career training students and the taxpayer resources that support them. The Department has a strong role to play in ensuring that career training programs meet the expectations of enrolled students, who are seeking a better...

The considerations prescribed by the RFA strongly support strengthening protections against overdraft fees on debit card and ATM transactions. More broadly, comprehensive reform of unfair and abusive overdraft practices is badly needed. The RFA sets forth five factors to consider in an RFA review. Consideration of these factors in the opt-in rule context shows clearly that any effort to weaken the rule would be unwarranted, and, rather, protections against overdraft abuses must be strengthened. Moreover, consideration of these factors make clear that the opt-in rule should not be weakened for...

The 24 undersigned community, consumer, civil rights, and faith groups write regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or the Bureau)’s review of the 2009 Regulation E overdraft opt-in rule under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). Weakening the opt-in rule in any way is clearly unsupportable; rather, protections against unfair and abusive overdraft fees should be substantially strengthened. Today’s overdraft fee practices undermine trust in this nation’s banking system, permitting banks to thrive by shattering the financial lives of their most vulnerable customers. Financial...

"Regarding State Authorization of Distance Education providers enrolling students across multiple states, we voice here our support for those provisions of the NPRM that preserve the State Authorization rules finalized in 2016 and currently in effect. The 2016 rules provide core protections to consumers and protect states’ rights to enforce their own laws in two key areas. First, the rules set requirements for reciprocity agreements that would require compacts like NC-SARA to raise their minimum uniform standards and clarify that states must retain their rights to enforce postsecondary...