CRL in the News

As Orlando-area rents continue to climb, a major bank is offering a pair of home-buyer grants that could help low- and moderate-income residents make the leap to ownership. This week the region became one of 49 national markets targeted by Bank of America for a five-year, $5 billion affordable home ownership initiative. The effort provides eligible home buyers a down-payment grant of 3 percent of the home’s purchase price — up to $10,000 — and a separate lender credit of up to $7,500 that can cover one-time fees or be used to buy down the loan’s interest rate. Neither grant has to be repaid

Are more $38 cups of coffee on the horizon? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has opened a review of the decade-old federal “overdraft rule,” which regulates how banks charge fees when their customers spend more than what is in their checking accounts. Under the rule, banks must get their customers’ express permission before charging a penalty for overspending, whether through most debit card purchases or A.T.M. withdrawals. If customers don’t accept overdraft coverage, banks simply decline transactions that would drop an account balance below zero. If customers do “opt in” to overdraft

Bank fees have gotten way out of hand — so much so that they now account for more than a third of revenue for an industry that once made its cash almost exclusively by lending money to customers. And the worst of the worst are overdraft fees. They’re little more than cash grabs, serving no purpose but to fatten bankers’ already bulging pockets. It’s time lawmakers put a halt to the practice. Or, barring that, we should follow the example of Britain, which just placed limits on how much can be charged by banks for exceeding available funds.

On Saturday mornings, locals shuffle through the ACE Cash Express at 16th and Mission in San Francisco, greeting one another in Spanish, if at all. The storefront signage — “Fast Loans Prestamos” — is unremarkable here, between pentecostal churches and stands of Tajin-salted mango. Here, in the city’s historically Latinx Mission District, the median family income hovers around $67,000 and one-third of households speak only Spanish. ACE is surrounded by its payday-lending competitors: one per block, each somehow more excited than the last, promising cash quicker than the last. But three miles

The rate of Black homeownership in America – now at 41.1 percent, according to 2019 U. S. Census numbers – is even lower than it was when the U. S. Fair Housing Act was signed into law 51 years ago on April 11, 1968. This means Black homeownership is 32.1 percentage points lower than that of Whites, which stands at 73.2 percent. It also means Black homeownership is 6.3 percentage points lower than that of Latino-Americans, which stands at 47.4 percent. These are just a few of the facts presented to a recent Congressional hearing by homeownership advocates. The hearing, held by the House

The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau changed its tune on payday loans when the country changed presidents. The Center for Responsible Lendingnoticed. CRL's Ezekiel Gorrocino visits with details of the current situation with payday loans.

WASHINGTON — When the Federal Housing Finance Agency opened a fair-lending monitoring office last August, there was little fanfare. But the launch of the Office of Fair Lending Oversight stood in contrast to different moves by officials elsewhere in the Trump administration. Today the FHFA’s Office of Fair Lending Oversight is still somewhat under the radar. It has five employees, technically falls within the agency's Division of Housing Mission and Goals. and has left some observers unclear about its mission. But the new office has offered hope to consumer advocates who were alarmed at

After over a decade of stagnation, the race is finally on to release mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from government control and reshape the housing finance system. The devil is, as always, in the details — except that some of the “details” aren’t so limited in scope. One of the biggest questions in play right now revolves around the question of whether Fannie and Freddie will continue to operate as a duopoly. It’s a question with enormous implications: trillions of dollars of business for industry participants, and access to the American Dream for ordinary households.

In her first four and a half months on the job, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger was no stranger to Capitol Hill, holding in-person meetings with lawmakers more than twice as often as her predecessor did during a similar time frame. Kraninger, who has been at the helm of the agency since December, met in person with 16 members of the House or Senate from Dec. 11 through the end of April, most of them in the lawmaker's office. The meetings, posted as part of her public schedule that is available on the CFPB website, were held with 10 Republicans and six Democrats.

Sallie Mae, the student loan provider once sponsored by the government, is expanding into credit cards. The company this month unveiled a suite of three credit cards aimed at college students, recent graduates and young professionals. Its new cards offer rewards for responsible financial behavior. They come 18 months after the company introduced personal loans.