Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Amid a national conversation on limiting interest rates, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) applauds U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) for introducing the Predatory Lending Elimination Act (S. 3793), legislation to create a strong, permanent cap of 36% annual percentage rate (APR), including fees, on consumer credit – covering credit cards as well as installment, car-title, and...

Durham, North Carolina – The Center for Responsible (CRL) today released a report on the harm to consumers from a lender charging annual percentage rates (APRs) up to 195%, “Lost Opportunities: How OppFi Traps Borrowers in Unaffordable Debt.” The report outlines a path for state legislators to more effectively stop the scheme by which OppFi and a handful of other...

St. Paul, Minnesota – With President Trump and Congress discussing a national cap on loan interest rates, the Center for Responsible Lending and Minnesota-based Exodus Lending today released a timely report on a recently enacted state rate cap, “ Escape from the Debt Trap: Relief for Minnesotans After State Ends Payday Lending.” Minnesotans had been charged a 220% Annual Percentage...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In what the current administration has already acknowledged is one of the nation’s worst affordability crises for America’s working and middle classes, Russell Vought, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), today issued an advisory opinion that aims to let certain, app-based, financial technology (fin-tech) payday lenders continue concealing the true, high-cost price of their...

WASHINGTON, DC – The Center for Responsible Lending has urged the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Russell Vought, to withdraw a proposed rule that would weaken the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), a 51-year-old civil rights law that prohibits lending discrimination based on personal characteristics, including sex, race, age and national origin. “If it goes into...

Washington, D.C. — The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Legal Defense Fund and National CAPACD — National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development submitted a comment letter yesterday to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The letter opposes the CFPB’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)...

Providing window into problems facing families nationwide, original research about Colorado borrowers shows expensive credit is already burying people in debt, debunking argument for legalizing even costlier credit DENVER, COLO. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) today released the report “ Buried in Debt: High-Cost Credit Products Harm Working Coloradans.” The report’s findings refute a misguided argument often made...

WASHINGTON, DC – Nearly 200 labor, consumer, and civil rights organizations today issued a stark warning to Congress: as families struggle under record affordability pressures, legislation poised for reintroduction — modeled on last year’s H.R. 7428 — would open the door for payday loan apps to take even more from the already stretched-thin paychecks of military servicemembers and other workers...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it will reassign many of its core responsibilities to other federal agencies. Jaylon Herbin, director of federal policy at the Center for Responsible Lending, issued the following statement: The move represents an alarming escalation in the administration’s broader effort to dismantle the Department of Education and weaken its ability...

Ending Agency's Role Will Increase Housing Inequality, Encourage Financial Predators WASHINGTON, DC - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued a proposed rule that makes significant changes under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). The bureau’s proposal will end the disparate impact standard for enforcement actions, allow lenders to discourage applicants by race, and limit the use of special...