Press Releases

In a speech today in Pittsburgh at the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, President Obama announced new Department of Defense rules to further protect service members and their families from predatory lending practices. The rules strengthen the Military Lending Act (MLA), closing loopholes unscrupulous lenders use to target military families with predatory, high-cost loans, and applying the Act's rules to all existing lending practices in the marketplace. The new rules go into effect October 1. Center for Responsible Lending President Mike Calhoun gave the following statement: The

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a Request for Information (RFI) soliciting feedback on student loan servicing issues. CRL submitted comments to this request for information – comment author Maura Dundon offered the following remarks on student loan servicing issues: Fair student loan servicing is critical to protect borrowers and help them repay their loans successfully. But student loan servicing stands today where mortgage servicing stood over a decade ago: critically important and largely ignored. We have seen that the handling of student loans is rife with problems; some

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it has reached a settlement with Honda Finance Corporation, which will result in the finance company paying $24 million in restitution to affected borrowers. Honda's past practices resulted in thousands of borrowers of color paying higher interest rates than white borrowers. The company will also change its lending practices to reduce discrimination, and submit to additional oversight to monitor for discriminatory impact. CRL Senior Vice President Chris Kukla released the following statement: The terms of the settlement are

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and legal officials from 47 states and Washington, D.C. announced a joint settlement with JPMorgan Chase that will result in the bank paying $136 million in fines and $50 million in restitution based on investigations into its debt collection and debt sales practices. The investigations focused on the selling of "zombie debts" and incorrect consumer data to third-party debt collectors and the use of improper debt collection techniques, including "robo-signing", the rapid signing of legal documents without adequate review. Lisa Stifler, Policy

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development today released its rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), taking definitive actions that will address "disparities in housing needs and in access to opportunity, replacing segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns, transforming racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and fostering and maintaining compliance with civil rights and fair housing laws." CRL executive vice president Nikitra Bailey commented: Today the Department of Housing and Urban

A majority of Republican, Democratic and Independent voters across the nation support the work and mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a recent national poll sponsored by the Center for Responsible Lending and Americans for Financial Reform. The poll also identified strong bipartisan support for consumer protections to guard against financial predators and for tough enforcement of those protections. The poll has been conducted since 2012 and support for the CFPB after voters hear a description of its purpose has been relatively consistent. This year, support for

The comment period on the US Department of Education proposed rule governing college-bank marketing partnerships closes on Thursday, July 2. CRL senior policy counsel Maura Dundon submitted comments to the Department and offered the following remarks: The Department of Education's proposed rule governing college-bank partnerships is a good first step towards protecting students from unfair marketing practices and overdraft fees – but more must be done to ensure that federal financial aid disbursement does not become a way to unfairly add to college coffers and bank bottom lines. A way to get

Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) filed a public comment on urgently needed rules proposed by the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) that would require payday lenders to follow California law by prohibiting the use of electronic transfers and debit cards in payday transactions. The rules would also create a new real-time electronic database to enforce existing law requirements that borrowers take out only one loan at a time. "The DBO's proposals will limit payday lender practices only to those activities actually authorized under the law and give DBO a real-time

On June 18, the Student Loan Ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a new report on the private student loan industry that sheds light on many troubling servicing practices affecting students and loan co-signers. CRL senior policy counsel Maura Dundon offered the following remarks: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's report confirms what consumers and consumer advocates have known for years: the servicing industry for private student loans is sorely in need of reform. The report reveals an industry plagued by poor customer service, breaches of contract, and even

On May 28, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice took enforcement action against Provident Funding Associates; the agencies found that the mortgage lender charged higher fees to African American and Hispanic borrowers. As early as 2006, the Center for Responsible Lending documented the pernicious extent of mortgage pricing disparities for borrowers of color by both brokers and lenders ("Unfair Lending", May 2006). CRL senior vice president Paul Leonard offered the following remarks: This action is a reminder that practices with racially discriminatory impacts