Press Releases

Yesterday more than 80 diverse groups representing over 60 million Americans called on federal financial regulators to clarify that high-risk subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) should be subject to the same lending standards as other risky products identified by regulators. Last fall, the regulators issued tougher guidelines for lenders that offer certain "non-traditional" mortgages. The regulatory edict—formally known as "guidance"—failed to...

Banks want to be exempted from a new federal law protecting military families from predatory lending, but military and consumer advocates are asking the Pentagon to deny such an exemption and protect borrowers from any usurious lending, no matter who is making the loans. A measure protecting troops from predatory lenders was passed by Congress last fall as an amendment...

WASHINGTON, DC –Tomorrow, Martin Eakes, CEO of the Center for Responsible Lending, will testify about rising subprime foreclosures before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. CRL has joined a coalition of civil rights, consumer, labor and community development organizations calling on policymakers to rein in risky lending practices in the loosely regulated mortgage market. Homeownership is the...

WASHINGTON, DC – Banks across the nation are taking advantage of the upward trend in debit card use to make high-cost overdraft loans more common and still costlier, according to a study released by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) today. "What banks are calling 'bounce protection' is starting to look more like a 'protection racket,'" said Eric Halperin, director...

This is Mike Calhoun for the Center for Responsible Lending. We appreciate the participation of the National Association of Realtors and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and we also thank you in the media for calling in. The research we're releasing today shows that subprime lenders are selling the most dangerous loans to the most vulnerable borrowers, creating the...

Washington, DC – December 19, 2006 – A new Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) study reveals that 2.2 million American households will lose their homes and as much as $164 billion due to foreclosures in the subprime mortgage market. Titled, "Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to Homeowners," the CRL study is the first comprehensive, nationwide...

Payday lenders pocket $4.2 billion in excessive fees each year from Americans who seek a two-week loan and end up trapped in debt, according to a new report released today by the Center for Responsible Lending. The study calculates the cost of predatory payday lending state-by-state and also estimates that borrowers save $1.4 billion in states that enforce reasonable interest...

Good afternoon. I am Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending. We are a nonprofit, non-partisan research and policy organization that protects family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices. I thank our fellow presenters today. They are Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection for the Consumer Federation of America, who has done groundbreaking work on...

A Congressional committee did the right thing today by approving a 36-percent cap on payday loans to military personnel that will protect them from these predatory lenders. It was a victory for the Pentagon; the consumer, civil rights and veterans groups who stood up with it; and Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FLA), who introduced the amendment...

The Center for Responsible Lending commends federal regulators who said today they would start requiring lenders to consider whether a borrower can repay when they make certain kinds of home loans. But the regulators missed the boat in helping all the consumers at risk from mortgages that could blow up on them. Lenders have sold billions of dollars of complicated...