Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Today Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) released its annual report, The State of the Nation’s Housing 2019. (PDF) Published annually since 1988, this year’s report again identifies recent trends and issues facing the housing industry. Key to this year’s findings are: In 2019, the cost of a median-priced home rose by 4% to $261,600...

WASHINGTON, DC – Over two dozen faith leaders from around the country and two former borrowers met with the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Kathy Kraninger, today at CFPB headquarters in Washington. The group asked Director Kraninger to give great consideration to the people harmed by payday lending, as a CFPB proposal threatens to gut landmark reform...

Letters come after news that regulators pursuing joint small-dollar policy Growing concern that several Administration appointees may be giving green light for predatory loans WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Responsible (CRL) joined a coalition of national consumer and civil rights groups in writing to top banking regulators on the importance of preventing banks from once again issuing payday...

CFPB is required to consider comments on its plan, which would eliminate protections from 300%+ APR payday loan debt traps House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing held on the proposal WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), as part of a coalition of civil rights, consumer, and labor groups, submitted an official comment letter to the Consumer Financial...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Eric Blankenstein, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s policy director for supervision, enforcement, and fair lending, has resigned following controversy over racist blog posts from 2004 in which he used racial slurs for African-Americans and claimed that most hate crimes reported by people of color were hoaxes. Center for Responsible Lending Executive Vice President Nikitra Bailey released...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has announced support for legislation introduced today by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019. This bill would eliminate the section of the federal bankruptcy code that makes student loans nondischargeable. CRL Senior Policy Associate Cheye-Ann Corona issued the following statement: While many graduates strive to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Executive Vice President Nikitra Bailey spoke before the House Financial Services Committee’s subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance to testify on the urgent need to address racial discrimination within the nation’s housing finance system. The title of the hearing was called, “A Review of the State of and Barriers to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Kathy Kraninger, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), announced a long-awaited proposed rule governing the $11.5 billion debt collection industry that includes 7,700 collection agencies nationwide. It is also an industry that ranks among those most reported complaints received by the CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). As announced, debt collectors would...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At 3:00 p.m. ET this afternoon, a House Financial Services subcommittee will convene a hearing entitled “Ending Debt Traps in the Payday and Small Dollar Credit Industry. A live-stream of the hearing along with a full witness list and background information are available on the Committee’s website. Among those testifying is Diane Standaert, director of state policy...

Tomorrow (Tuesday) a House Financial Services subcommittee will hold a hearing on the bill, which would establish a bulwark to defend Americans from predatory lending, and also on the CFPB’s move to roll back consumer protections on payday loan Click here for this map, showing the APR of a typical payday loan in those states without strong interest rate caps...