CRL in the News

Aberdeen, Washington, is a far Northwest outpost of JPMorgan Chase & Co., with one lonely branch perched near the Pacific, 2,900 miles from Wall Street. Now the bank is planning to depart the rainy timber town that gave the world Kurt Cobain. The next-closest Chase branch is 40 miles away. At the same time, JPMorgan plans to open 70 branches...

A federal rule that would have provided an extra level of consumer protection against payday lending practices has been proposed to be rescinded on the basis that it would reduce access to short-term loans for consumers. Idaho cities in the past have attempted to protect citizens from payday loans that often trap consumers with drastically high interest rates. Idahoans paid...

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced legislation last week that would end the practice of forced arbitration and allow consumers to file class action suits against financial companies. The Arbitration Fairness for Consumers Act would also ensure that financial crimes cannot be hidden from the public in a private and opaque process.

Asha Clark doesn’t have any savings. She works full time. She earns a minimum wage, making phone calls as a customer service representative. In Las Vegas where she lives, that’s $8.25 an hour. Sometimes, her paycheck isn’t enough to cover all her bills. Those are times that Clark would take out a payday loan. In Nevada, there are more payday...

Many Atlanta-area students taking courses at a for-profit university are worried about its future because the school’s parent company is in financial trouble and they say officials are sharing scant information about the situation. Those concerns grew after federal education officials announced Wednesday they are giving the school, Argosy University, two weeks to show why it should continue to participate...

If you buy a new or used car, and a few days later the dealer tells you there’s been a problem with your financing, alarm bells should go off. You might be the victim of a “yo-yo” financing scam — so called because you’re pulled back into the dealership to renegotiate the deal at a higher interest rate and worse...

In 2004, the pinnacle of homeownership in the United States, nearly half of all African American families owned a home, according to census data. The record figure, fueled by the housing boom of the early 2000s, was still one-third less than housing rates for whites. But it was widely viewed as a milestone for a minority group that spent generations...

The payday lending lobby has largely stayed under the radar in previous election cycles as other hot-button issues like Wall Street regulation and tax policy took up voters’ attention. But with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), both advocates of consumer protections, officially running for president, the industry is gearing up for its first big political fight in...

Millions of Americans have used payday loans. These are small, short-term loans known for charging staggering interest rates — sometimes in the 300 to 400% range. While the loans can provide quick financial relief to people who need it, the loans can quickly spiral and send borrowers into a cycle of debt. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is responsible for...

The Miami New Times reports that the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA) will host its annual conference at President Donald Trump’s golf resort in Doral this year. The CFSA, a trade group that represents payday loan companies, traditionally holds the conference in California during odd-numbered years. Sekinah Hamlin of the Center for Responsible Lending said the move is...