Research & Policy

Lump sum single balloon payment payday loans with a two-week term have historically dominated the payday loan market. A shift in recent years, due to regulatory or industry changes, has been for payday lenders to make payday loans with longer terms due in multiple installment payments, each due on or around the borrower’s payday. Payday lenders often market these products...

Voters of all political parties overwhelmingly oppose the actions taken by Mick Mulvaney to undermine the mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and feel a strong connection between lax enforcement of the rules on Wall Street and their daily welfare, according to a new poll release by Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and the Center for Responsible Lending...

In response to the Education Department’s stated interests to end an 18-year old departmental practice of sharing information with law enforcement officials, the Center for Responsible Lending recently wrote comments urging Secretary Betsy DeVos to continue the productive and long-standing exchanges. Citing recent collaborations that together returned or forgave more than $36 million to harmed consumers in just four states...

On May 31, 2018, the parties to this action filed a joint motion asking the Court to stay both this litigation and the principal compliance date of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s regulation on payday, vehicle title, and certain high-cost installment loans, 12 C.F.R. part 1041 (“Payday Rule”), at issue in the case. In support of their request for...

Before the court in the above styled and numbered cause is the parties' Joint Motion for Stay of Litigation and Stay of Agency Action Pending Review filed May 31, 2018 (Clerk's Document No. 16). By the motion the parties move the court for the following: (1) a stay of this litigation pending agency rulemaking to reconsider Defendant Consumer Financial Protection...

The marketing of for-profit colleges is ubiquitous, yet student outcomes are consistently poor. These outcomes include high dropout rates, low and unstable earnings of graduates, and heavy debt burdens that students are unable to repay, often resulting in default and ruined credit. The reliance of for-profit colleges on federal student aid dollars compounds these harms and fuels these poor student...

Committee on Financial Services U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Re: HR 4439 (Hollingsworth), Sham Lender Bill – Oppose Dear Representative, The 120 undersigned consumer, civil rights, labor, community and legal services organizations strongly oppose HR 4439 (Hollingsworth), the so-called Modernizing Credit Opportunities Act. The bill would allow payday lenders to use the fine print of loan terms and...

Dear Coalition supporters, At a time when victories are hard to come by, please take a minute to celebrate a big win! We stopped Congress from rolling back the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s national payday rule. Last week, the clock ran out on efforts to use the fast-track Congressional Review Act to repeal the rule and prevent the bureau from...

The undersigned organizations write to express our opposition to S. 2155, the so-called “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act,” and urge you to oppose this harmful legislation. As you know, S. 2155 passed in the Senate on March 14th. The bill already contains destructive policies that roll back or eliminate essential protections put in place by the Dodd-Frank...

This sign-on letter of national civil rights, faith, and consumer groups, argues that bank payday loans are high-cost debt traps, just like payday loans from non-banks. It urges the prevention of high-cost, usurious loans by banks and credit unions—whether short-term, balloon-payment payday loans (which banks sometimes call “deposit advance” loans) or longer-term high-cost installment loans or lines of credit, and...

In our January 2017 CRL Issue Brief, States without Payday and Car-title Lending Save $5 Billion in Fees Annually, we estimated that consumers in states without payday and car title lending save over $5 billion in fees each year – $2.2 billion in payday fees saved, plus another $2.8 billion in car title fees saved. In this earlier Issue Brief...

Among Maryland voters, concern over student loan debt has reached a critical mass: 71% say student loan debt in the state is a "major problem;" 82% agree that the overall outstanding student loan debt represents a financial crisis; and 87% say the federal government should not force states to step aside when addressing the student loan crisis, but work with...

Since 1934, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has played a vital role in the housing finance system. It serves as the entry point to the mortgage market for many first-time homebuyers and helped create a strong economic recovery following the Great Depression. However, in its early development, the FHA perpetuated racial discrimination in its facilitation of broad mortgage credit liquidity...

While today's hearing importantly focuses on payday lending as a civil rights concern, it occurs within the context of a two-tiered financial services system rooted in a long history of discrimination on the basis of race. Nationally, payday lenders strip away over $4 billion a year from consumers through unaffordable loans carrying annual interest rates of 300% or higher. In...

Congressional Review Act (CRA) H.J. Res. 132/S.J. Res. 57 seeks to nullify the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2013 guidance addressing indirect auto lending. This guidance describes auto lenders’ responsibility, established by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to avoid discriminatory lending practices. Lending discrimination in the auto market, substantiated by data time and again, has long been prevalent.

Congressional Review Act H.J. Res. 132 seeks to nullify the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2013 guidance addressing indirect auto lending. This guidance describes auto lenders’ responsibility, established by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to avoid discriminatory lending practices. Download this factsheet for more information on these discriminatory practices.

The letter begins... We, the undersigned civil rights and consumer advocacy organizations, ask you to oppose S.J. Res. 57, the Congressional Review Act (CRA), introduced by Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), intended to undo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Consumer Bureau) Indirect Auto Lending Guidance, published over five years ago. This resolution is the latest in a series of...

The full letter begins: We, the undersigned civil rights and consumer advocacy organizations, ask you to oppose S.J. Res. 57, the Congressional Review Act (CRA), introduced by Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), intended to undo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Consumer Bureau) Indirect Auto Lending Guidance, published over five years ago. This resolution is the latest in a series...

In recent decades, an increase in consumer debt has led to substantial growth in the debt collection industry as Americans struggled to pay down their debts. A subset of the debt collection industry, debt buyers, emerged in the wake of this growth in consumer debt. Debt buyers purchase debts from lenders and other creditors at a steep discount and then...

Congressional Review Act S.J. Res. 57 seeks to nullify the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2013 guidance addressing indirect auto lending. This guidance describes auto lenders’ responsibility, established by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to avoid discriminatory lending practices. Download this factsheet for more information on these discriminatory practices.

The payday lenders promote myths in an effort to kill the CFPB’s payday loan rule aimed at stopping their 300% interest debt trap. The facts that dispel some common myths can be found here.

Over 100 North Carolina organizations have joined this state sign-on letter to strongly oppose payday lending. These groups include military and veterans associations, faith organizations, housing and credit counseling agencies, rural, business, civil rights, seniors and labor groups, among many others. They urge our North Carolina congressional delegation to strongly oppose H.J. Resolution 122 and S.J. Resolution 56, fast-track measures...

H.R. 4861 (Hollingsworth), the so-called EQUAL Act, invites banks to get back into the business of 200-300% interest payday loans that trap customers in unaffordable debt. The bill would rescind the FDIC’s 2013 guidance addressing bank payday (“deposit advance)” loans; exempt banks and credit unions from the CFPB’s final payday loan rule; and provide for express federal preemption of state...

Mark Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League Michael F. Molesky, senior financial economist Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) The proposed housing finance legislation would impose great harm on affordable housing efforts and the overall housing market. Proponents of the legislation do not address the damage the proposal would do by repealing the...

Any proposal should hold to the spirit of the original HEA which sought to open the doors of higher education to all. This proposition connotes meaningful access and opportunity to quality higher education programs, not simply the creation of more options or the provision of unduly burdensome loans. Despite this goal, our current system is at risk of curtailing the...