Press Releases

Washington, D.C. — American families are turning to credit cards to make ends meet in an increasingly volatile economy, according to The Plastic Safety Net: The Reality Behind Credit Card Debt in America, a new report released today by Demos and the Center for Responsible Lending. Released just five days before the new bankruptcy law takes effect and effectively shuts...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Payday lenders rip off our soldiers, sailors and aviators for more than $80 million every year, says the Center for Responsible Lending. These military people -- young, financially unsophisticated, often strapped for cash -- are three times more likely than civilians to have used the payday lending stores that flock around the gates of military bases, according...

State and federal officials from four states warned today that a bill in Congress would weaken laws against predatory mortgage lending in 36 states, especially the 24 states with major anti-predatory lending laws on their books. The officials are U.S. Rep. Brad Miller (NC), New Mexico Chief Deputy Attorney General Stuart M. Bluestone, Massachusetts Rep. John F. Quinn (Dartmouth) and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Homebuyers may not realize that monthly payments on some types of specialty mortgages can increase by as much as 50 percent or more when the introductory period ends. That's one of the messages that the National Association of Realtors® and the Center for Responsible Lending are trying to drive home in "Shopping for a Mortgage? Do Your...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending joined today with 15 other groups in filing a brief supporting New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's efforts to enforce discrimination laws against national banks. Spitzer asked the banks to explain why the numbers the federal government requires them to make public each year show racial disparities in the banks' mortgage lending...

Download the Report Strong Compliance Systems Support Profitable Lending While Reducing Predatory Practices WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When national mortgage finance companies claim that state laws clamping down on predatory lenders will cost borrowers a lot of money, don't believe them. In a report released today, the Center for Responsible Lending estimates that the cost of complying with state predatory lending...

Download the Report High Cost & Hidden from View: The $10 Billion Overdraft Loan Market It is a product many people never asked for, don't want, and can't afford. Yet they wind up with it anyway. It's the overdraft loans that banks and other financial institutions make -- sometimes at interest rates well over 1,000% -- when customers overdraw their...

Congress holds hearings Tuesday, May 24th on two predatory mortgage-lending bills, one backed by industry that would gut strong state laws and weaken federal law, the other supported by consumer and civil rights groups and that would protect more people from losing their homes. Martin Eakes, an expert on predatory lending as CEO of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Responsible...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reps. Brad Miller, Melvin L. Watt and Barney Frank will hold a press conference Tuesday on their anti-predatory mortgage-lending bill. The Prohibit Predatory Lending Act (HR 1182) strengthens protections against predatory lenders, who are booming as the market for sub-prime mortgages explodes. Predatory lenders cost American homeowners and homebuyers in the sub-prime market, where people with less-than-perfect...

Download the Report Car Title Lending: Driving Borrowers to Financial RuinWashington -– Cash-strapped families risk losing their cars in the latest form of high-cost small lending spreading across America, according to a new report from the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and Consumer Federation of America (CFA). Borrowers who put their cars on the line to borrow a few hundred...