Predatory Lenders Add Pressure for Easier Credit

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Edward Martin | Business North Carolina
About 900 South Carolina payday and auto-title lenders made more than a million such loans in 2015, the latest year tallied by the Durham-based Center for Responsible Lending. The 128,000 borrowers paid an average annual percentage rate of 390% on a $391 loan borrowed for two weeks. The number of loans made to North Carolinians is not tracked, but clearly...

California Bows to Payday Lenders on Interest Rate Caps

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Nick Cahill | Courthouse News Service
The Center for Responsible Lending — which sponsored Assembly Bill 2500 — said lawmakers wilted and succumbed to the financial industry’s heavy lobbying. “Assembly members just signaled to predatory lenders that it’s OK to target distressed Californians into taking out abusive loans,” the nonprofit’s policy director Graciela Aponte-Diaz said. “People around California and across the country want protections from these...

Here's Why Fees for Some NC Loans Might Increase 200 Percent

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Deon Roberts | The Charlotte Observer
"We are opposed to the proposal just simply because we don't feel like the rates need to be raised at this time, at a time when banks are experiencing record profits," said Kelly Tornow, director of North Carolina policy for the Center for Responsible Lending.

El presidente Trump y 234 representantes de la Cámara Baja ven la discriminación racial de color verde [$$$]

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Aracely Panameño | Univision Noticias
El presidente Donald Trump, empoderado por el voto de 234 representantes de la Cámara Baja del Congreso estadounidense, firmó esta semana una ley federal que alienta la discriminación racial en el financiamiento de la compra de autos, al bloquear regulaciones impuestas años atrás por la Oficina de Protección Financiera del Consumidor. En enero de este año, Eric Trump dijo: “Mi...

U.S. Banks Urged to Make Small Loans In Competition With Payday Lenders

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Bradley Keoun | The Street
But some consumer advocates were quick to caution that it remains to be seen how banks will tailor their new offerings - and what the OCC will allow. There's no official cap at a federal level on the interest rates banks can charge, but research has shown that anything above 36% is difficult for most borrowers to afford, said Rebecca...

Groundhog Day at Fannie-Freddie Where the Fix Is Always Tomorrow

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Joe Light | Bloomberg
The Center for Responsible Lending, a left-leaning nonprofit, advocates for wide credit access and is calling for highly regulated versions of Fannie and Freddie to be preserved. The group says it’s so unclear what the Trump administration wants that next year is likely to end up looking much like 2018. There’s reason to think Congress might eventually try again, but...

Watchdog agency signals less focus on student loan abuses

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Ken Sweet | Associated Press
"Education alone cannot stop predatory behaviors on the part of for-profit schools and servicers, nor can it help hundreds of thousands of Americans in serious debt because of these practices," said Whitney Barkley-Denney, senior policy counsel with the Center for Responsible Lending.