CRL in the News

Senator Kamala Harris, a California Democrat and potential 2020 presidential contender, has a Trump-size tax plan of her own. There are two other related issues the proposals would target. The first, as Harris said, is the persistence of payday lending in depressed neighborhoods and among lower-income families. Even given the good economy, and even given the passage of the Dodd-Frank...

It’s unclear exactly what led to the situation in Detroit, although the tough economic situation for the city and its residents in recent years has certainly contributed. The company has been investigated by regulators for potential wrongdoing, and it has faced accusations in cases across the U.S. of duping car buyers into taking on untenable loans, however no current probes...

Thousands of Marriott workers around the country are on strike, complaining that stagnant wages and unsteady hours have made it difficult to stay afloat. At a time when they are under particular pressure, the credit union may be adding to their struggles. Overdraft fees in particular have provoked controversy within the credit union world. “We have a hard time taking...

Fifty consumer groups are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to withdraw a plan allowing fintech firms to test financial disclosures on consumers. The groups argue the CFPB’s "disclosure sandbox" proposal, which would provide certain legal safe harbors to participating companies, exceeds the CFPB’s statutory authority and would put consumers at greater risk.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's decision to stop examining financial firms for compliance with the Military Lending Act has sparked pushback not only from lawmakers and consumer advocates but also from the Defense Department and every major group representing military service members. Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney's claim that the Dodd-Frank Act does not give the bureau statutory authority to...

How much has the market learned from the financial crisis a decade back? And are we prepared for the next crisis? Looking specifically at the housing market, Michael Calhoun, President of the Brookings Center for Responsible Lending said in a recent paper that while regulatory safeguards that were put in place subsequent to the crisis have made today’s housing market...

Last October, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its payday and car-title lending rule. The agency, under the leadership of Richard Cordray, spent five years developing these safeguards, which included input from lenders, faith leaders, veteran and military organizations, civil rights groups, consumer advocates, and constituents from across the country. This was the first time that a federal agency rolled...

When LendMark started offering subprime loans to California residents a few years ago, it noticed something odd: a vast and growing number of big loans offered by rival firms at interest rates of 100% or higher, and relatively few smaller, cheaper loans. To executives at the suburban Atlanta company, which entered the state by buying loan storefronts from a competitor...

U.S. Bank recently introduced a new small-dollar loan product. By the bank’s own description, it’s a high-cost product, at 70-88% APR. High-cost loans by banks offer a mirage of respectability. A component of this illusion is the misguided idea that limiting payment size to 5% of gross income means the loan is affordable for most borrowers. But these products will...

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed three bills Sunday that could have a sizable impact on banks and other lenders in the nation’s most populous state. The most prominent of the three requires publicly traded companies that are headquartered in California to add more women to their boards. Brown also signed legislation imposing new disclosure requirements for certain small-business loans by...