Press Releases

OAKLAND, CA – Following release of a new California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) report, Center for Responsible Lending Director of California Policy Marisabel Torres issued the following statement: This report is the first since California’s groundbreaking law capping annual interest rates at 36% went into effect. The data show that the law essentially eliminated triple-digit interest rate...

“We cannot Build Back Better by eliminating funding for one of the best wealth-building, job-creating, community-stabilizing tools available to working Americans – access to affordable housing,” said Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending. “We stand with Chairwoman Waters in opposition to efforts to reach a budget reconciliation agreement by stripping assistance for overburdened Americans who increasingly are...

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), California LULAC, the Consumer Federation of California (CFC), Haven Neighborhood Services, New Economics for Women (NEW), and a coalition of consumer advocates issued the following joint statement in response to Oportun’s withdrawal of its application for a national bank charter: Our coalition...

“These new Public Service Loan Forgiveness standards will allow hundreds of thousands of Americans to finally access the promised loan forgiveness they earned after working for years in their communities and making their agreed-upon repayments,” said Whitney Barkley-Denney, senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending. “While more needs to be done, it is encouraging that this Department of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate is expected to take a final vote today on the nomination of Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra to serve as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In response to this development, Center for Responsible Lending Acting Federal Advocacy Director Graciela Aponte-Diaz issued the following statement: Rohit Chopra is the consumer watchdog...

Washington, D.C. — Following Senator Raphael Warnock’s (D-GA) introduction of the Senate companion to the Downpayment Toward Equity Act, which would allocate $100 billion in funding for first-time homebuyers, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the Center for Responsible Lending, UnidosUS, and the...

Joint statement by BPI, CRL and ICBA in advance of U.S. Subcommittee hearing on “The Future of Banking” Washington, D.C. — This morning, the U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions will meet to discuss the “The Future of Banking,” including whether to prevent companies that are not banks from using an industrial loan company (ILC)...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, national civil rights, housing policy, and consumer protection groups released a letter sent to Congressional leadership and committee chairs calling for inclusion of housing policies that would advance racial and economic equity in the upcoming human infrastructure reconciliation legislation. The letter, linked here, was signed by the Center for Responsible Lending, The Leadership Conference on Civil...

House Committee on Small Business Hears Testimony on Faulty Forgiveness Rules for the Paycheck Protection Program WASHINGTON, D.C. – Experts in small business lending today told a House committee that confusion around the rules of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is inadvertently saddling many of the smallest businesses – disproportionately owned by people of color – with unanticipated debt. “SBA...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), along with affiliated nonprofits, Self-Help Credit Union and Self-Help Federal Credit Union, today released a comment letter supporting a proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to restore the “disparate impact” standard, a crucial legal tool used to identify and eliminate discrimination. Full text of the...