Press Releases

The payday lending trade group Community Financial Services Association (CFSA) is using a working paper based on insufficient data to claim that working families are worse off in states with strong consumer lending laws that cover payday lending. ( Read CRL's critique of the paper.) Payday loans trap borrowers in loans they cannot afford to pay off at interest rates...

With 2 million foreclosures predicted over the next two years, the plan announced by President Bush for targeted loan modifications for some subprime borrowers is a positive, but very limited, first step. CRL estimates the President's plan will only help about 7% of subprime borrowers—about 145,000 families—because of the program's limited scope. For example, the plan does nothing to help...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California mortgage lenders Countrywide, GMAC, Litton and HomeEq announced today that they plan to follow the direction of FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair and institute systematic loan modifications for borrowers with resetting ARMs. This unprecedented move is expected to provide relief for tens of thousands of California borrowers and, if properly implemented, should serve as a model...

The Honorable Barney Frank The Honorable Spencer Bachus Chairman Ranking Member House Financial Services Committee House Financial Services Committee Dear Chairman Frank and Ranking Member Bachus: We, the undersigned organizations, write to present our views on H.R. 3915, the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007. While we greatly appreciate your efforts to reduce predatory lending and to restore...

U.S. House of RepresentativesWashington, DC 20515 Dear Representative: The undersigned groups are writing in anticipation of floor action on H.R. 3915, the "Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007." We appreciate the bipartisan effort on this important issue and look forward to working with the Congress to pass a strong law to protect consumers from predatory lenders. Unfortunately, however...

Take it from former payday borrowers: loan sharks who left the state will not be missed. A new report from the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks has found that the absence of the payday loan shops that once dotted North Carolina's strip malls and street corners has made little difference to most survey respondents. Of the former borrowers who have...

Subprime foreclosures are resulting in a severe drain on property values—even for families paying their mortgages faithfully every month—and will cause 44.5 million homes to lose a total of $223 billion in wealth over the next few years, most of it in 2008 and 2009, according to the Center's report. In addition to foreclosed homeowners, the $223 billion drain—which amounts...

We commend Chairman Frank and Representatives Watt and Miller for taking the lead in addressing the underlying problems that have led to the escalating foreclosure crisis in this country. Banning prepayment penalties in the subprime mortgage market, requiring lenders to assess each borrower's ability to repay, and eliminating the bonuses lenders now pay to brokers to put people in more...

As the nation's foreclosure epidemic continues to worsen, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has formed the Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance (IFLA) to support groups giving legal representation to families facing foreclosure and financial ruin because of abusive subprime mortgages. The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) will manage the project, which recognizes that one of the biggest barriers...

We're glad leading members of Congress want to provide more legal and counseling help to the millions of families who have or will lose their homes to foreclosure because of reckless subprime lenders. Congress also must act quickly to change the bankruptcy code to allow judges to modify home loans on primary residences. Right now the code makes the family...