Press Releases

Today, Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) released statements following the suggestion of the National Economic Council Director that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Director Richard Cordray would be replaced. These developments threaten to leave consumers prone to the types of abusive financial practices that were rampant in the run-up to the Great Recession. Director Cordray was confirmed to a five-year term with the bipartisan support of 66 Senators in 2013. His term ends in July 2018. AFR and the CRL made the following statements:

U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.) introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would repeal new rules on prepaid cards finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) last October. The rules were designed to protect low-income families, many of whom have no bank account and use prepaid cards to handle their financial transactions. CRA is a legislative tool that allows lawmakers to undo federal regulation with a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate. If invoked, CRA prohibits a federal agency—like the CFPB—from rolling out regulations similar to those it

This afternoon, President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order “directing the Treasury secretary and financial regulators to come up with a plan to revise rules the Dodd-Frank law put in place.” Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Executive Vice President Debbie Goldstein released the following statement: If this Administration has not learned from the mistakes that caused the 2008 economic crisis, they are doomed to repeat them. Lest we forget, lax regulation allowed Wall Street to back extremely reckless loans whose failure snowballed into a financial crisis and Great

Today, U.S. Senators Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) introduced a bill to severely weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by dismantling the structure of its leadership. The bill, Consumer Financial Protection Board Act, would turn the CFPB’s leadership into a five member commission where it would be vulnerable to partisan gridlock and halt the progress of making consumer protection a top priority. Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Policy Counsel Yana Miles released the following statement: This bill underscores

National Consumer Advocacy Groups File Motion to Intervene with DC Circuit and Maintain CFPB's Constitutional Authority to Protect Americans from Wall Street Greed Today in a joint effort, advocate groups including Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), Self-Help Credit Union (SHCU), The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), and Maeve Elise Brown, the Executive Director of Housing and Economic Rights Advocates and Chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Consumer Advisory Board

Cost-savings for home buyers purchasing a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed mortgage loan was eliminated by the first executive order of the new Trump Administration. The move rolls back a premium rate cut of .25 percent that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced early last week, which aimed to save borrowers, especially first-time homebuyers, hundreds of dollars a year on annual mortgage insurance premiums. Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) senior researcher Sarah Wolff released the following statement: The Administration’s actions will make it more

Suit against Navient underscores need to keep the CFPB undisturbed with Richard Cordray as director. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it is suing Navient, formerly part of Sallie Mae and the nation’s largest servicer of both federal and private student loans, over allegations that it routinely cheated borrowers out of their right to lower loan repayments based on their income. Navient also failed to properly apply payments, steered borrowers toward costlier repayment plans, and buried information that could have both lowered payments and let borrowers release their co

Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) released research showing troubling outcomes at Colorado’s four-year for-profit colleges. For-profit colleges leave students with lower graduation rates, higher debt loads, and higher defaults on that debt. These difficulties fall especially heavily on students of color, who are disproportionately enrolled in for-profit colleges in Colorado. CRL analyzed date from the U.S. Department of Education and found the following: The graduation rate at Colorado’s four-year for-profit schools averaged only 26% -- only one out of four students graduate– as

Innovation Should Not Come at the Expense of Consumer Protection The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the NAACP have sent a letter to Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry urging him not to offer national charters to financial technology firms, which could severely undermine state oversight and state laws that protect consumers and small business owners from abusive financial products and practices. "We understand that the OCC seeks to expand financial inclusion and lead innovation through issuing non-bank charters to fintech

Advocates underscore real threat to state law protections against predatory lenders "The OCC's charter proposal enables companies to avoid state licensing regimes and oversight by state regulators and attorneys general." More than 250 groups sent a letter today to Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry urging him not to grant national charters to financial technology firms, which could preempt state oversight and state consumer protection laws that protect consumers and small businesses from abusive financial practices. The letter by state advocates, affordable housing providers, national