Press Releases

Targeting Borrowers of Color Only Widens the Racial Wealth Gap The California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) published a new research report this week that shows payday loan stores in the state are disproportionately located in heavily African American and Latino neighborhoods (PDF). Combined, African Americans and Latinos make up almost 44% of the state's total population--and in those communities...

Innovation Should Not Come at the Expense of Consumer Protection, Evade State Anti-Predatory Lending Laws Today, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced its intention to offer national charters to financial technology firms, which could severely undermine state oversight and state consumer protection laws that protect consumers and small business owners from abusive financial products and practices...

Brown, Sherman Bill Would Prevent Wells Fargo from Using Forced Arbitration Clauses in Real Accounts to Block Customers from Suing over Fraudulent Ones The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) today applauded the introduction of the Justice for Victims of Fraud Act of 2016, a bill to give Wells Fargo customers who were victims of a fraudulent account opening scheme their...

United Effort to Maintain a Strong, Independent Consumer Protection Agency Today, Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), and other civil rights and consumer advocacy organizations, as well as 21 members of Congress submitted amicus briefs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the case of PHH Corporation v. CFPB...

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), along with the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights and NAACP, applauded the U.S. Department of Energy for strengthening its Best Practice Guidelines for Residential PACE Financing in final guidance issued Friday. The Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program is intended to finance energy efficient home improvements through municipal loans, but low-income homeowners...

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a petition for rehearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit urging the court to revisit a three judge panel's 2-1 decision made last month on CFPB's enforcement order in PHH Corporation vs. CFPB. In its decision, the panel ruled that the President must be able to...

On November 8, 75% of South Dakota voters approved reducing the cost of payday loans from 574% to 36% annually. At the same time, a significant majority of South Dakotans rejected the payday lenders' proposal to allow permanent unlimited rates. The rate cap ballot measure approved by South Dakota voters will cap the annual interest rates at 36% for payday...

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced final regulations amending the Borrower Defense to Repayment provision of the Higher Education Act (HEA) to ensure that students and taxpayers do not have to bear the financial burdens that arise when predatory higher learning institutions make misrepresentations and fail to provide students with an adequate education. These kinds of bad practices severely...

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) lauded California members of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, California State Legislature, city and county officials, and California Attorney General Kamala Harris for sending official statements to the Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) calling on the agency to strengthen its proposed rule on payday and car title lending...

If the PHH vs. CFPB Decision Stands It Would Undermine Consumer Protection Agency, Stifle Effort To Curb Predatory Lending Today, in a 2-1 ruling led by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) enforcement order in PHH Corporation vs. CFPB. In its decision, the court...