Press Releases

The Federal Housing Administration's mutual mortgage insurance fund plays a critical role in providing access to credit so that millions of Americans—many of whom are first-time buyers, come from low- and moderate-income backgrounds, or purchase homes in communities of color—can be successful homeowners. The FHA today proposed revised language on the lender certification of loan and borrower eligibility and lender...

Today, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a final rule setting affordable housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs). Affordable housing goals are meant to ensure that people in lower-wealth communities have access to homeownership and affordable rental housing. [1] FHFA announced that its single-family, low-income home purchase goal for 2015-2017 would be set at a...

We at the Center for Responsible Lending were deeply saddened by the loss of Julian Bond, a great American, our friend, colleague and a member of the CRL Board of Directors. We all knew Julian as an iconic warrior in the trenches of the American civil rights movement. As a founding and longtime CRL board member, Julian also brought vision...

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a consent order requiring Discover Bank to pay a $2.5 million dollar fine and $16 million in refunds to consumers for illegal student loan servicing practices. The bank overstated the minimum amounts due on billing statements and denied consumers information they needed to obtain federal tax benefits. According to the CFPB, the...

In a speech today in Pittsburgh at the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, President Obama announced new Department of Defense rules to further protect service members and their families from predatory lending practices. The rules strengthen the Military Lending Act (MLA), closing loopholes unscrupulous lenders use to target military families with predatory, high-cost loans, and applying the Act's rules...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a Request for Information (RFI) soliciting feedback on student loan servicing issues. CRL submitted comments to this request for information – comment author Maura Dundon offered the following remarks on student loan servicing issues: Fair student loan servicing is critical to protect borrowers and help them repay their loans successfully. But student loan servicing...

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it has reached a settlement with Honda Finance Corporation, which will result in the finance company paying $24 million in restitution to affected borrowers. Honda's past practices resulted in thousands of borrowers of color paying higher interest rates than white borrowers. The company will also change its lending practices to reduce...

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and legal officials from 47 states and Washington, D.C. announced a joint settlement with JPMorgan Chase that will result in the bank paying $136 million in fines and $50 million in restitution based on investigations into its debt collection and debt sales practices. The investigations focused on the selling of "zombie debts" and incorrect...

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development today released its rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), taking definitive actions that will address "disparities in housing needs and in access to opportunity, replacing segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns, transforming racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and fostering and maintaining...

A majority of Republican, Democratic and Independent voters across the nation support the work and mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a recent national poll sponsored by the Center for Responsible Lending and Americans for Financial Reform. The poll also identified strong bipartisan support for consumer protections to guard against financial predators and for tough enforcement of...