Press Releases

Student Debt Cancellation Will Boost the Economy and Create Jobs Washington, D.C. — Today, 101 civil rights, consumer and advocacy organizations and think tanks sent a joint letter to House and Senate leadership, urging them to include student debt cancellation in the next economic stimulus package. Led by Center for Responsible Lending, American for Financial Reform, Demos, and Freedom to Prosper, the letter stresses the ways that if left unaddressed, the student debt trap will deepen our current recession, slow our economic recovery, exacerbate inequality, and deepen a crisis already facing

Bank of America, Quicken Loans, Citi , Wells Fargo, National Association of Realtors call on HUD to hold off on issuing a final Disparate Impact Rule WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, leading civil rights groups commended mortgage lenders and industry leaders now advocating for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to refrain from issuing a final Disparate Impact rule. These civil rights organizations are also renewing their own push for the agency to pull its dangerous proposal that would gut longstanding civil rights protections for addressing systemic racism in housing. Like those

As families are knocked down by the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis, the CFPB keeps families exposed to financial ruin from unaffordable 400% interest rate loans WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Trump-appointed Director Kathy Kraninger released a final rule that eliminates basic protections from payday and car-title loans that trap consumers in debt. Today’s action guts the 2017 CFPB Payday Rule by eliminating that rule’s main consumer protection: the commonsense requirement that lenders verify borrowers have the ability to repay a loan

The bank regulator’s plan provides an avenue for lenders to evade state laws that cap interest rates and to harm families suffering most in this economic downturn Described as “recipe for disaster” and as a way to “fuel financial exclusion" WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) joined with a broad coalition of advocacy organizations in two public comment letters warning the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that its proposed rule for chartering additional underregulated Industrial Loan Companies (ILCs) would expand predatory, high-interest lending. The plan

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Last night, the U.S. Senate approved a bill to extend the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application deadline. The bill extends the PPP authorization cutoff from June 30 to August 8, 2020, preserving funding for additional PPP loans. The bill now goes to the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration. The Senate legislation also decouples the PPP authorization from the SBA 7(a) program, eliminating the risk that the regular 7(a) program could shut down when the PPP hits its authorization cap. More than $100 billion in relief is

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Supreme Court released their decision in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where it found that the CFPB's leadership structure, which features a single head removable only for inefficiency, neglect, or malfeasance, is unconstitutional. In January, the Center for Responsible Lending and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC (Cohen Milstein) submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in the case on behalf of their clients, community development financial institutions (CDFIs) Self-Help Credit Union, Hope Enterprise Corporation

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) released its 2019 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data this week, covering the vast majority of mortgages made in the United States in the past year. Like previous years, the data revealed that borrowers of color remain underserved in the conventional market. Despite a modest increase in the share of home-purchase loans made to Black and Latino borrowers in 2019, these shares remain well below the population share they represent. The HMDA data also shows that the majority of home purchase loans made to Black

Call on Congress to Pass Federal 36% Interest Rate Cap Limit Washington, D.C. – Consumer advocates Center for Responsible Lending, National Consumer Law Center, and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund criticized the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for today finalizing a rule that encourages online non-bank lenders to launder their loans through banks so the non-bank lenders can charge triple-digit interest rates in states where high rates are illegal. The OCC finalized a similar rule last month. The rules were strongly opposed by a bipartisan group of attorneys general

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released two Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs). The proposals would extend the temporary Government-Sponsored Enterprises Patch (GSE Patch) and amend the definition of “qualified mortgage” (QM) by removing the debt-to-income limit and replacing it with a price-based approach. The QM rule was created under the ability to repay provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) President Mike Calhoun released the following statement: Black and

*** ADVISORY FOR WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2020 AT APPROXIMATELY 1 P.M. ET/10 A.M. PT *** WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Wednesday, June 17, at approximately 1 p.m. ET/ 10 a.m. PT, Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Director of Federal Advocacy and Senior Counsel Ashley Harrington will testify in a virtual hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Small Business for a hearing titled, “Paycheck Protection Program: Loan Forgiveness and Other Challenges.” In the hearing, Harrington will discuss the structural fixes needed to ensure that the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck