CRL in the News

Jaylon Herbin, director of federal campaigns at the Center for Responsible Lending, said borrowers need to stay in constant contact with their loan servicer, which may have changed. "During the beginning of 2022, federal student aid took on new contracts for servicers," Herbin pointed out. "It used to be Navient and Sallie Mae. So you should have been receiving those...

The Center for Responsible Lending released a report this year that showed economic gaps and underfunding at HBCU’s push students to take on a disproportionate amount of debt. This keeps graduates from adding to their net worth later in life, the report said.

Repaying buy now, pay later purchases with credit cards isn’t any better, even though some do it. “This practice — essentially using a credit card to pay off other debt — is a sign of inability to repay,” according to the Center for Responsible Lending and other groups in a March 2022 joint report.

“I will never forget going to Gallup on my way to the Navajo reservation and seeing just store after store after store of predatory lenders lined up tip to tail all the way to the border with Arizona,” said Whitney Barkley-Denney, a deputy director of state policy and a senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending. “I think...

This list honors the corporate lobbyists, hired guns, association leaders and grassroots activists who leveraged their expertise and connections to make a difference in the nation’s capital this year. Grassroots advocates won hard-fought battles to secure some of this year’s most significant bipartisan measures, including the first gun violence bill in decades and legislation to expand benefits for veterans exposed...

“This poll reveals Americans of all ideological stripes support the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. People want the CFPB to stop financial discrimination and other unfair practices. Any move to defang this consumer watchdog would be extremely unpopular,” said Charla Rios, deputy director of research at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).

The Center for Responsible Lending studied complaints made by consumers to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Better Business Bureau regarding buy now, pay later options. Based on those complaints, some consumers said they had faced delays in receiving refunds, had difficulty resolving disputes and were upset when they still had to make repayments during a dispute process. "They...

Nadine Chabrier, senior policy council at the Center for Responsible Lending, worries about consumers who take out multiple BNPL loans. “It’s easy to lose track, and you can quickly be in a situation where you have payments due all over the month,” Chabier told Checkbook. “You don’t get a statement, and you may end up getting overdraft fees if you...

Whether it’s buying a home, saving for retirement or starting a business, student debt makes it difficult for graduates of historically Black colleges and universities to build wealth after college, a new report shows. The report, from the Durham-based Center for Responsible Lending, evaluated polling, focus group and public education data to gauge the impact of heavy debt burdens —...

The increase was larger for Black and Latino buyers because their homeownership rates were so much lower to begin with, said Mike Calhoun, the president of the Center for Responsible Lending.