Press Releases

Film shows sky did not fall when payday lenders stopped charging 574% interest South Dakota – A new 30-minute documentary released today by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), in cooperation with South Dakotans for Responsible Lending, follows the movement to cap the state’s payday, car title, and installment loan interest rates, which previously soared up to 574%. The film captures the relentless spirit of the broad coalition of South Dakotans that took on the firmly entrenched and well-financed predatory lending industry – and won. A resounding 76 percent of voters passed Initiated

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Today, Mick Mulvaney announced that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plans to move forward with gutting the agency’s rule to stop abusive payday lending and car-title loan debt traps. The announcement calls for the CFPB to reconsider both the rule's compliance date, as well as its core ability-to-repay provisions. A new proposal is expected in January 2019. The payday lending rule, finalized last year under then-CFPB Director Richard Cordray, establishes basic consumer protections on these 300% or more interest loans, including the common-sense standard that

DURHAM, N.C. – A new Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) policy analysis calls for the State of New Jersey to protect student borrowers from abusive practices in the face of weakening federal protections. New Jersey, which ranked sixth in the nation for the level of debt carried by 2017 graduates, can take concrete steps to protect their citizens from the worst impacts of a student loan crisis that is rocking the nation. CRL is releasing the report as part of the New Jersey Citizen Education Fund’s 9 th Annual Financial Reform Summit being held today in Newark. New Jersey can follow the lead

Payday Loan Sharks are Allied with New Leadership at the CFPB in Trying to Stop Consumer Safeguards WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalizing its rule to stop payday and car-title debt traps. It is the first-ever federal rule of its kind and came after more than five and a half years of development, as shown in this interactive timeline. At the heart of the rule is the common sense and widely-supported principle that lenders check a borrower’s ability to repay before issuing a loan. The Center for Responsible Lending’s

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A breaking news report from The New York Times exposes even more racially derogatory remarks from Eric Blankenstein, a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) political appointee handpicked by President Trump and CFPB head Mick Mulvaney to oversee supervision, enforcement, and fair lending. Mr. Blankenstein’s comments are dismissive of racism and show that he is unfit to oversee the agency’s policing of discrimination. The Center for Responsible Lending’s Senior Legislative Counsel Yana Miles issued the following statement: Mr. Blankenstein must be removed from his post

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Education publicly announced that it would miss a November 1 deadline to issue new rules to replace Obama-administration rules known as Borrower Defense to Repayment and Gainful Employment. Under Secretary DeVos, the Department had sought to delay, suspend, and rewrite the rules designed to protect students and hold career and technical colleges accountable. The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and other students and advocates were deeply concerned about the Department’s new proposals, which significantly weakened oversight and recourse for

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services introduced a bill to reverse the Trump Administration’s anti-consumer agenda. The Consumers First Act, ( H.R. 6972) proposes legislative remedies to restore to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): Full supervisory and enforcement powers in the Bureau’s fair lending office; Prior interagency agreements that promote effective coordination among governmental offices; Adequate CFPB staffing in its enforcement and supervisory positions to effectively hold

Center for Responsible Lending warns policymakers against giving companies a “Get Out of Jail Free” card WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today at approximately 9 a.m. ET, the Center for Responsible Lending’s (CRL) Director of Federal Advocacy, Scott Astrada, will testify before the House Financial Services Committee’s Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee for a hearing entitled: Examining Opportunities for Financial Markets in the Digital Era. In the hearing, the committee and its witnesses will discuss a recent U.S. Department of Treasury report on financial technology (fintech), which

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Friday, September 28, at approximately 9 a.m. ET, the Center for Responsible Lending’s (CRL) Director of Federal Advocacy, Scott Astrada, will testify before the House Financial Services Committee’s Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee for a hearing entitled: Examining Opportunities for Financial Markets in the Digital Era. In the hearing, the committee and its witnesses will discuss a recent U.S. Department of Treasury report on financial technology (fintech), which was released in July. CRL has heavily criticized the Treasury report because of its

OAKLAND, CALIF. – California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law SB 818, a bill to restore key provisions in California’s landmark “Homeowner’s Bill of Rights” (HBOR) legislation which passed in 2012 in response to the foreclosure crisis. HBOR has prevented thousands of avoidable foreclosures by requiring mortgage loan servicers to engage in timely, fair and transparent process with struggling homeowners before proceeding to foreclosure. The bill’s sponsor is Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose), who introduced the bill after concerns that HBOR has been weakened by the 2017 legislative sunsets