CRL in the News

Nikitra Bailey, who oversees coalition building and constituent services at the Center for Responsible Lending, said that if bringing unbanked or underbanked Americans into the financial mainstream is a part of addressing income inequality, building off the CRA would be a logical place to start.

If you are one of the 77 million Americans who are hounded each year by debt collectors, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is taking on this $13 billion industry. At a July 28 field hearing in Sacramento, Richard Cordray, CFPB director, announced the Bureau's intent to rein in illegal practices that harass and rob consumers.

Graciela Aponte-Diaz, director of California policy at the Center for Responsible Lending, said the proposals "endorse the common-sense idea that people should not be harassed for debts they do not owe." But she expressed concern that some parts of the proposals don't protect consumers from unwarranted collection attempts.

Many payday loan borrowers aren’t able to repay the loan when it’s due and roll it over into a new loan, incurring new fees. The CFPB found that nearly half of borrowers had more than 10 transactions in the 12-month period covered in a survey. The Center for Responsible Lending found that payday loan borrowers are more likely to become...

The first federal agency dedicated to serving the financial needs of consumers will be five years old on July 21. Created in the aftermath of the worst financial calamity since the 1930′s Great Depression, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created through the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

Banks have long argued that overdrafts, which allow customers to draw accounts below zero for a fee, are a service that consumers value. Consumers groups counter that the vested interest banks have in encouraging account holders to overdraw has to be met with hard-and-fast rules limiting overdrafts and the cost of the service. “We want to see the bureau use...

“Nearly five years following the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, consumers are still calling for financial accountability,” said Mike Calhoun, CRL president. “Efforts to bring transparency and fairness to personal finance may have begun. But these new results signify that our work must continue. Every consumer is entitled to financial fairness.”

Ninety-six percent of Democrats and 89 percent of Republicans regard financial regulation as important, according to the survey, which was conducted in June by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending.

Payday lenders aren’t creating jobs with their predatory lending practices, and they aren’t driving economic growth, they are standing in the way. Small business owners, their employees, and their customers would fare better with sound protections from payday lenders. A recent study from the Center for Responsible Lending found that in states that effectively regulate payday lending, consumers that would...

While economists contend that the economic recession is over, the reality for much of black America is starkly different. Racial disparities in unemployment and under-employment persist. And homeownership, a key measure of economic health for consumers and communities alike, continues its downward decline even now.