Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Executive Vice President Debbie Goldstein released the following statement today after the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced her decision to rescind the agency’s Gainful Employment Rule: Betsy DeVos’ decision to eliminate this important education protection is a disservice to the public and only serves to put corporate interests ahead of struggling students and taxpayers. Over the past few years, and after a rigorous review process, the Obama Administration proposed and finalized the Gainful Employment Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. House Representatives Susie Lee (D-Nev.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Preventing Risky Operations from Threatening the Education and Career Trajectories of (PROTECT) Students Act of 2019, a bill to protect higher education students by improving oversight and accountability of predatory institutions, including for-profit colleges and universities. This legislation is a House version of the PROTECT Students Act of 2019 introduced by U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) in March. "We applaud Reps. Lee and DeLauro for

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, outpacing the growth of median household income for the seventh straight year. The price-to-income ratios rose in 85 of the nation’s largest markets last year. More than 60% of home mortgages issued in the second half of

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 of the triple-digit interest rate loans that payday lenders make, which was scheduled to take effect this summer. The meeting comes less than two weeks after the CFPB announced it will delay for fifteen months

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 loans that trap people in a cycle of debt. The groups pointed to a recent letter from more than 400 organizations to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which “ prominently stressed

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 Protection Bureau (CFPB), excoriating CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger’s plan to gut a 2017 CFPB rule that was issued to stop payday loan debt traps. The coalition’s comment letter is a comprehensive rebuttal to

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 the following statement: The CFPB’s decision to move the Office of Fair Lending out of Enforcement signaled its lack of commitment to ensuring a fair and inclusive financial

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 repay their debt in a timely manner, thousands of others struggle to make ends meet. That is why it’s important to have legislation that will provide vulnerable student loan

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 Minority Homeownership.” In her testimony, Bailey specifically focused on the homeownership rate gap between whites and people of color, the racial wealth gap and policy solutions to create equity

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 be able to place up to seven unanswered calls each week to consumers. Once that limit is reached, the collector could not resume communications until a week had passed. If more