CRL in the News

Trump's Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to help small businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis, so naturally loans went to his friends and huge companies. We talked to Ashley Harrington of ResponsibleLending.org and the small business owners of 46 Mott, Fan Fan Donuts, Brown Butter, ConBody, and Kato Sake about the ramifications of that corruption.

In keeping with President Biden’s focus on helping minorities and people with low and moderate incomes—groups hit hardest by the coronavirus-induced downturn—financial regulators are expected to emphasize racial equity as they focus on consumer protection and expanding access to financial services.

More than 325 organizations, including the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), called upon the Biden administration to use its executive authority on its first day to cancel federal student debt. Originally sent this past November, the letter was updated on Jan. 15 with 85 additional signers.

“Bold action on racial justice is needed at the outset, and fully implementing the Fair Housing Act of 1968 as part of a comprehensive racial equity agenda is essential to expanding opportunity for all Americans,” Nikitra Bailey, vice president for Center for Responsible Lending, tells theGrio.

“These are business owners, they should be able to access this program…. there’s a whole section of people who, no one has found them guilty of anything they haven’t been tried in court, yet they can’t access the program”, said Ashley Harrington, federal advocacy director for the Center for Responsible Lending.

"Payday lenders not only disproportionately harm people of color, they target communities of color," says Rebecca Borné, a lawyer with the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending. "So the agency is really taking the language of civil rights to do something that's fundamentally inconsistent with the original intent of that language." says Borné. The result, she adds, would be to exacerbate...

Regulators are updating Community Reinvestment Act protections, but will they do it without giveaways to banks? by Paula Melton Redlining may be coming back. The practice of denying loans to people and businesses based on their neighborhood effectively became illegal in the U.S. in 1977 with passage of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). This law requires deposit-accepting banks to meet...

“Reversing course, without any rational basis for doing so, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the economy, will only push struggling families closer to the brink,” said Will Corbett, litigation director at the Center for Responsible Lending.

Durham, NC — Despite widespread opposition from advocates and state officials, the OCC issued a final rule today that would allow the banks they regulate to participate in “rent-a-bank” partnerships with predatory lenders, encouraging the return of 400% interest debt traps to North Carolina. After closing down illegally operating payday and car title lending in North Carolina in 2006, North...

The Trump administration has said that they’re seeking to expand opportunity and prosperity for African Americans, specifically by creating a “better climate for minority-owned businesses.” But their actions speak differently: The signature COVID-19 economic relief program for businesses—the Paycheck Protection Program—did not prioritize underserved markets, which negatively impacted thousands of Black-owned firms. In April, the Center for Responsible Lending said...