Press Releases

Poll released as House Committee Chairwoman Waters backs bipartisan legislation to establish a national 36% interest rate cap WASHINGTON, D.C. – Voters across the country and across the political spectrum strongly support a 36% annual interest rate cap for both payday and consumer installment loans, according to a new poll commissioned by the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and conducted by independent polling firm Morning Consult ( View a PDF slide deck showing highlights of the poll). Approximately 10,000 registered voters took part in the survey, which has a margin of error

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, February 5, at approximately 10 a.m. ET, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Director of Federal Campaigns, Graciela Aponte-Diaz, and National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) Associate Director Lauren Saunders, will testify before the full House Financial Services Committee for a hearing entitled: Rent-A-Bank Schemes and New Debt Traps: Assessing Efforts to Evade State Consumer Protections and Interest Rate Caps. CRL and other consumer and civil rights organizations have underscored their concerns about rent-a-bank schemes to the Office of the Comptroller and

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Eric Stein, Senior Vice President at Self-Help, a community development lender and parent of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), released the following statement after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced, in a letter to Members of Congress, that its forthcoming proposal will not rely solely on a loan’s debt-to-income ratio (DTI) in determining whether it is a qualified mortgage (QM) after the expiration of the “GSE Patch,” which grants an exemption for loans eligible for sale to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: We welcome Director Kraninger’s

Groups Strongly Oppose OCC Proposal that Would Bypass State Rate Caps to Allow High-Cost Predatory Loans Washington, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending, National Consumer Law Center, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, Americans for Financial Reform, Consumer Federation of America, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG, sent a strong message late yesterday to a federal bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller and Currency (OCC), opposing a proposed rule that would encourage rent-a-bank schemes that enable loans

The CFPB’s structure is constitutional and critical to ensuring that it can carry out its consumer protection mission free from undue political and industry influence. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC (Cohen Milstein) submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in the case of Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau  (CFPB) on behalf of their clients, community development financial institutions (CDFIs) Self-Help Credit Union, Hope Enterprise Corporation / Hope Credit Union (HOPE), Inclusiv

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives passed, H.J.Res. 76, a resolution disapproving the Department of Education’s current Borrower Defense to Repayment rule under the Congressional Review Act. Once in effect, the 2019 regulation will severely weaken accountability for predatory for-profit colleges, prevent defrauded students from accessing relief, and fuel the growing $1.5 trillion student debt crisis that disproportionately affects students of color. The resolution, introduced in November by U.S. Representative Susie Lee (D-Nev.), seeks to protect students and taxpayers from

DURHAM, N.C. – Today the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) released a report analyzing the impact of a 36% interest rate cap on South Dakota following its 2016 passage by ballot measure. The Sky Doesn’t Fall: Life After Payday Lending in South Dakota finds that some South Dakotans are still suffering the harmful consequences of predatory payday lending from before the rate cap was enacted in the form of aggressive debt collections. But much lower cost options for meeting cash shortfalls are available in the state, and the storefronts that once peppered cities and towns have been replaced by

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a new proposed Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule that would reduce the financial pressure local governments, states, and public housing agencies have to meet their fair housing obligations. HUD published its AFFH rule in 2015. In 2018, HUD effectively suspended the rule and removed the AFFH data and mapping tool. The tool was used to access HUD-provided data to conduct the fair housing analysis. The AFFH provision was an integral part of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In that provision

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced a proposal to reform the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)—the landmark anti-redlining law enacted nine years after the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to stop persistent discrimination in lending. The Federal Reserve, which shares a regulatory oversight role on CRA along with the OCC and FDIC, did not sign the new proposal. Center for Responsible Lending Executive Vice President Nikitra Bailey released the following statement: Created in response to redlining, a

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the FUTURE Act, a bill to extend important mandatory funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Tribally Controlled Colleges or Universities (TCUs), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) that expired in September. The legislation is expected to get the U.S. Senate’s final approval. The bill includes a Senate agreement to permanently reauthorize $255 million for these higher education institutions and the FAFSA Act, a measure that makes it simpler for the Department