Press Releases

Listen to payday lending telenews event (RealAudio) Durham, NC -- Unwary U.S. borrowers who rely upon high-interest payday lending for quick cash are caught in a "debt trap" that costs them $3.4 billion each year, according to a report by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). Entitled " Quantifying the Economic Cost of Predatory Payday Lending," the new CRL study...

WASHINGTON, DC, December 9, 2003 -- Consumer, civil rights and lending groups today hailed Freddie Mac's recent decision to ban mandatory arbitration clauses from all subprime loans it purchases. The groups include AARP, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), NAACP, Consumer Federation of America (CFA), National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), National Community Reinvestment Coalition...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- State predatory lending laws, including North Carolina's first-of-its-kind legislation targeting abusive home mortgage terms, are working to protect consumers while not drying up the availability of credit to low-income borrowers, according to testimony delivered to Congress today by Self-Help Credit Union Senior Vice President George Brown, who also is spokesperson of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL)...

DURHAM, NC -- Siding with groups of state officials such as the Conference of State Banking Supervisors, National Association of Attorneys General, and National Governors Association, a diverse group of leading civil rights and consumer organizations called on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today to withdraw its controversial proposal to preempt application of state anti-predatory lending...

Listen to UNC study telenews event (RealAudio) Download the original 2003 report (PDF) CHAPEL HILL, NC -- The nation's first anti-predatory lending law -- the North Carolina statewide measure that took effect nearly three years ago on July 1, 2000 -- has significantly reduced harmful refinance loans containing abusive terms while not limiting access to subprime credit for homebuyers and...

DURHAM, NC. -- Calling fee-based overdraft programs now being used by 1,000 banks and other financial institutions "a hidden and unfair tax on the most vulnerable depositors," 54 national advocacy groups -- including the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Consumer Law Center and ACORN -- are calling on the Federal Reserve Board to implement minimum...

Download the full report (PDF) DURHAM, N.C. -- North Carolina's 1999 landmark anti-predatory lending law, the first of its kind in the country, saved consumers at least $100 million in predatory lending costs in its first year without drying up the availability of subprime credit for low-income borrowers in the state, according to a new study released today by the...

More than 200 national advocacy groups including the Coalition for Responsible Lending, AARP, Consumers Union, ACORN, NAACP, Consumer Federation of America, National League of Cities and National Council of La Raza joined 44 state Attorneys General in supporting an Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) proposed rule change that would help prevent a predatory lending practice that costs 500,000 American homeowners...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 25 -- The North Carolina-based Coalition for Responsible Lending (CRL) today released a major new report showing that predatory lending practices cost U.S. borrowers an estimated $9.1 billion annually. The U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee is to hold hearings on July 26-27th on predatory lending abuses and possible reforms. Spokesman Martin Eakes will testify...