New CRL, NAACP Report: Unsustainable Student Loan Debt Has Severe Impact on Borrowers of Color, Urgent Reforms Needed

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), co-authored a research report finding that student loan debt is unsustainable for many student borrowers, especially borrowers of color. The research paper, titled Quicksand: Borrowers Of Color & The Student Debt Crisis, offers policy recommendations to reform our country’s...

CRL on Equifax Data Breach Settlement

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, two years after the massive Equifax data breach, the credit monitoring agency has agreed to a settlement of up to $700 million. The agreement includes at least $400 million in consumer relief, $175 million to states, and $100 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in civil penalties. CRL Director of State Policy and Executive Vice...

New CRL Report Outlines Two Proposals to Replace the GSE QM Patch

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) released A Smarter Qualified Mortgage Can Benefit Borrowers, Taxpayers, and the Economy, a report urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to take timely steps to ensure widespread access to safe and sustainable loans. Unless the CFPB revises its mortgage rule under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection...

Consumer, Civil Rights Advocates to CFPB: Don’t Water Down Overdraft Fee “Opt In” Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD), and National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) late yesterday submitted a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...

DeVos Axes Gainful Employment Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Executive Vice President Debbie Goldstein released the following statement today after the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced her decision to rescind the agency’s Gainful Employment Rule: Betsy DeVos’ decision to eliminate this important education protection is a disservice to the public and only serves to put corporate interests...

Lee, DeLauro Introduce House Version of PROTECT Students Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. House Representatives Susie Lee (D-Nev.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Preventing Risky Operations from Threatening the Education and Career Trajectories of (PROTECT) Students Act of 2019, a bill to protect higher education students by improving oversight and accountability of predatory institutions, including for-profit colleges and universities. This legislation is a House version of the...

CRL on Harvard Report: Nation Must Face its Affordability Housing Crisis

WASHINGTON, DC – Today Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) released its annual report, The State of the Nation’s Housing 2019. (PDF) Published annually since 1988, this year’s report again identifies recent trends and issues facing the housing industry. Key to this year’s findings are: In 2019, the cost of a median-priced home rose by 4% to $261,600...

Faith Leaders and Payday Borrowers Urge CFPB Director Not to Look Away from the Harm Caused by Predatory Lenders

WASHINGTON, DC – Over two dozen faith leaders from around the country and two former borrowers met with the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Kathy Kraninger, today at CFPB headquarters in Washington. The group asked Director Kraninger to give great consideration to the people harmed by payday lending, as a CFPB proposal threatens to gut landmark reform...

Consumer and Civil Rights Groups Send Letters to FDIC, OCC, and Fed Urging them to Prevent Bank Payday Loans

Letters come after news that regulators pursuing joint small-dollar policy Growing concern that several Administration appointees may be giving green light for predatory loans WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Responsible (CRL) joined a coalition of national consumer and civil rights groups in writing to top banking regulators on the importance of preventing banks from once again issuing payday...

In Comprehensive Official Comment Letter, Broad Coalition Rebukes Trump-appointed CFPB Director’s Plan to Gut Payday Loan Rule

CFPB is required to consider comments on its plan, which would eliminate protections from 300%+ APR payday loan debt traps House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing held on the proposal WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), as part of a coalition of civil rights, consumer, and labor groups, submitted an official comment letter to the Consumer Financial...