Press Releases

"This proposed regulation, in conjunction with the important efforts of our military service organizations and advocates, veteran service organizations, and responsible lenders, would help ensure that our service members and their families are as far beyond the reach of financial exploitation as possible." Department of Defense, Press Release, September 26, 2014 Today, the Department of Defense released proposed rules to further protect service members and their families from predatory lending practices. Below is a summary of the changes. For more information or to speak with an expert

This week, CitiBank became the latest in a band of banks to unveil a new checking account – one without checks or overdraft fees. This move not only underlines the rapidly declining use of checks – but also awareness about the harmful financial effects bank fees have on consumers, especially economically vulnerable consumers. Rachel Anderson of CRL comments: Excessive and unpredictable bank fees have a punishing impact on financially vulnerable Americans. These fees can drain accounts and family wealth – and push some families out of the banking system entirely. Of these fees, overdraft can be

This week, the Department of Education released new data about student loan default rates – indicating that for-profit college students continue to experience disproportionately high levels of default. Maura Dundon, senior policy counsel at CRL, issued the following statement: New data released yesterday by the Department of Education show that for-profit colleges, once again, account for a disproportionate share of the nation's student loan defaults. This poor performance further justifies the need for a strong "gainful employment" rule, which is currently being drafted by the Department. For

This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced lawsuits against two payday lenders. Both payday lending networks are accused of illegally extracting interest payments and fees from consumer accounts without consumer knowledge or consent. Both agencies have taken legal action to halt the lenders' activities. Gary Kalman, executive vice president of CRL, issued the following statement: This week's announcements by the FTC and the CFPB are only further evidence that payday lenders engage in abusive, predatory, and even illegal activities

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it intends to supervise the largest nonbank based auto lenders in a new "larger participant" proposed rule. The Bureau also announced that it has required indirect auto lenders to pay another $56 million to 190,000 consumers as redress for abusive practices, including dealer markup. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the lenders covered by the proposed rule accounted for more than half of the $355 billion auto loan market last year. Many lenders covered by the new CFPB rule are also deeply invested in the

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued Corinthian Colleges, Inc., the for-profit college company. The consumer protection agency claims that Corinthian engaged in deceptive and predatory lending practices in an effort to recruit students, get them to take out private student loans, and then to collect on those loans. Maura Dundon, senior policy analyst at CRL, issued the following statement: Corinthian Colleges, one of the largest for-profit colleges companies in the United States, has long engaged in reprehensible practices that leave students with worthless debt. The

Today, at a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Indianapolis field hearing on auto lending practices, Center for Responsible Lending Senior Vice President Chris Kukla testified about abuses in the market. Kukla, who leads CRL's auto lending team, highlighted the auto dealer interest rate markup and a number of issues in the subprime auto loan market that have been the subject of recent media scrutiny. The text of Kukla's opening statement is below: Thank you, Patrice. Director Cordray, thanks also to you and your staff for holding this hearing, and for providing me the opportunity to

In a letter sent today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) along with several other groups - Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, District of Columbia Consumer Rights Coalition, Consumers Union, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Consumers League, and U.S. PIRG - asked Councilmember Vincent Orange, the Chair of the Council's Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, to schedule a hearing and committee markup on legislation designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous debt buyers' abusive collection tactics. The group also urged other members

Civil rights, consumer, and community groups lauded the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for issuing strong guidance this week regarding banks' selling of charged-off consumer debts to debt buyers. The groups urged the agency to also take the next step and issue strong regulations to ensure that national banks do not continue to facilitate unfair, deceptive, and abusive debt collection practices. "This guidance is one of the first actions taken by a federal regulator to address the way banks sell off their old debt," said Lisa Stifler of the Center for Responsible Lending. "The

The New York Times reported that the US Department of Justice has issued a subpoena to General Motor's finance subsidiary. The DOJ subpoena specifically asks for information about auto loan underwriting criteria and how loans are securitized and sold to investors. The same NYT article noted that the office of US Attorney for the Southern District of New York is also investigating the subprime auto lending market. US attorney Preet Bharara is reviewing the soundness of auto loan securities and whether the credit-worthiness of borrowers was accurately conveyed to investors. In response to this