Press Releases

Today President Bush signed into law a housing bill passed by Congress aimed at stabilizing the shaky housing market. A key part of the housing bill will permit struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration—if their lenders and loan servicers agree. The Congressional Budget Office says this program could possibly help 400,000 homeowners, but because the...

Preventing millions of unnecessary foreclosures is important for all of us: the entire economy and every taxpayer. We're facing the wave of foreclosures today because reckless lenders for years mass-marketed bad loans. By the end of the bubble in 2006, six out of every 10 borrowers who got a subprime mortgages could have qualified for a lower-cost conventional loans. Who...

Consumer Federation of AmericaJean Ann Fox, 928-772-0674 National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of our low income clientsLauren Saunders, 202-452-6252 x105 Center for Responsible LendingKathleen Day, 202-349-1871 As a flood of high-cost and reckless lending saturates our nation, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) took a crucial and targeted step to clean up abusive consumer lending yesterday by introducing a 36 percent...

(Revised July 23, 2008) Today the Federal Reserve helped return the home lending industry to common-sense business practices by issuing new rules for mortgage lenders. We are pleased to see that the Fed has adopted key protections for borrowers who receive subprime loans, including: Addressing the most substantial cause of current foreclosures, lenders must carefully evaluate a borrower's ability to...

While Washington continues to debate how to rein in the risky lending practices that fueled the foreclosure crisis, states are taking action. Earlier this week the North Carolina General Assembly became the first in the nation to ban "yield-spread premiums"—kickbacks that encourage brokers to overcharge—on subprime mortgages. These kickbacks, which brokers received for delivering subprime loans with higher interest rates...

The payday lending industry doesn't want you to know it, but when it comes to protecting paychecks at the Arizona ballot box this November, "no" will mean "yes"—yes to capping payday loans at 36 percent once and for all. The signature-gathering period ends today for a ballot initiative from the payday lending industry. In less than four months, payday lenders...

HOPE NOW claims in a press release today that the mortgage lending industry's program of facilitating voluntary workouts for distressed mortgage holders has helped 1.7 million borrowers stay in their homes. Once again, a closer look at HOPE NOW's data shows these numbers greatly overstate the help being provided and that the foreclosure crisis continues to accelerate and overwhelm industry's...

Read the report (PDF)>> As IndyMac Bancorp battles questions about its financial stability, a new report from the Center for Responsible Lending provides evidence that IndyMac put itself in a hole by engaging in unsound and abusive lending during the nation's mortgage boom. The report, "'IndyMac: What Went Wrong?," finds substantial evidence that IndyMac routinely made loans with little regard...

Both CRL and the American Banker's Association have surveyed accountholders regarding overdraft preferences. CRL's research found that an overwhelming percentage of consumers (80%) would rather have their debit card transaction denied at the counter than be charged an overdraft fee. The ABA's survey concludes most Americans want unexpected overdrafts to be covered for a fee. CRL and the ABA got...

Thank you for being with us today. I want to thank my co-author on this report, Peter Smith, who is also a researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending Our nation is in a crisis of debt that reaches beyond the foreclosure epidemic and deep into the pockets of Americans who are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Banks and Credit Unions compound this...