Press Releases

Hearing Uses Debunked Arguments as Cover for Favoring Payday Lenders, Financial Predators Over Working Families Today, the House Committee on Financial Services’ Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held a hearing on the design of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Since its inception in 2010, the independent CFPB has provided 29 million Americans harmed by financial companies with a total of nearly $12 billion in restitution and it has helped thousands of families across America resolve disputes with unscrupulous lenders. Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Senior Policy

Assemblymember Kalra's AB 1109 would cap high-cost loans at 24% Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) applauded California Assemblymember Ash Kalra’s (D-San Jose) introduction of AB 1109, the Safe Consumer Lending Act, a bill to cap an annual percentage rate (APR) at 24% plus origination fee for consumer loans of $2,500 to $10,000. Currently, California has no APR limit for installment loans of $2,500 to $10,000, which gives predatory lenders the opportunity to charge borrowers interest rates of 100% APR or more. The legislation has support from civil rights leader Dolores Huerta and

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its draft licensing manual for fintech firms seeking the agency's new limited-purpose national bank charters. The draft offers detail on how the OCC will apply the licensing standards and requirements in existing regulations and policies to fintech firms applying for special national bank charters. The draft will be open for comment until April 14, 2017. In January, more than 250 organizations, including the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), sent a letter to Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry urging him not to grant

Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Policy Counsel Yana Miles issued the following statement today after President Donald Trump Released his budget blueprint for fiscal year 2018: President Trump has crafted a budget that will severely impact consumers, especially those with low-to-moderate incomes. From disadvantaged youth served by Job Corps centers across the country to senior citizens trying to transition to financial limitations in what should be their golden years, this budget proposal harms far more than it helps. Although education is generally viewed as the ladder to financial

A new report released today by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) shows that four-year for-profit colleges in Connecticut are leaving students with lower graduation rates, higher debt loads, and high default rates. These difficulties fall especially heavily on students of color, who are disproportionately enrolled in for-profit colleges in across the state. CRL analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education and found the following: For-profit college students in Connecticut are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic. While 11.1% of all Connecticut undergraduates attend for

Proposals Would Boost Transparency & Accountability Across Financial Sector Today, a group of congressional lawmakers, led by U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.), introduced seven bills to restrict forced arbitration and improve access to our judicial system for servicemembers, consumers, workers, and students. Across the country, fine print agreements--from financial to employment contracts--too often include arbitration clauses to strip individuals from receiving their fair day in court. Pushing this effort forward to protect consumers are U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Dick Durbin (D-Ill

Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) unveiled its new logo after nearly 15 years of using a green and blue chevron model. The new colors, blue, orange, and yellow and the community circle will underscore CRL’s affiliation as part of the Center for Community Self-Help (Self-Help) family, which also includes two credit unions and a nonprofit loan fund. Since CRL was established in 2002, the organization has expanded to three offices across the country. CRL remains headquartered in Durham, N.C., with offices in Washington, D.C. and Oakland, California. In nearly 15 years, CRL’s issue

Case Granted En Banc Is Essential Step In Maintaining Key Consumer Protections Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) petition to hear PHH Corporation vs. CFPB en banc. This order means that the CFPB can continue to operate as Congress intended during the pendency of the en banc proceeding, and is an important first step toward a decision by the full Court invalidating the panel’s previous and unprecedented 2-1 ruling. (PDF) The CFPB recently challenged the panel’s decision, which undermined the CFPB’s independence to

Proposals Attacking CFPB Would Eviscerate Essential Consumer Protections This week, a group of Republican Senators, led by U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), introduced a bill to make the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) budget come from Congress, instead of allowing the CFPB to receive independent funding as intended when Congress approved its creation in 2010. Additionally, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and U.S. Representative John Ratcliffe (R-TX) have introduced legislation this week to completely eliminate the CFPB—an agency that has provided 29 million people who were harmed

The United States Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General by a partisan vote of 52-47 this week. On Tuesday evening, Senate Republicans used a procedural maneuver to prevent Senator Elizabeth Warren from reading from the floor of the chamber a 1986 letter from Mrs. Coretta Scott King, who opposed Sessions in his bid for a federal judgeship. Mrs. King had written, “Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts.” Nikitra Bailey, an Executive Vice President