Research & Policy

The undersigned consumer protection, civil rights, and legal services groups write to express our significant concerns with the outline of proposed regulations on debt collection issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on July 28, 2016. The proposal represents a missed opportunity to fundamentally improve protections for consumers victimized by predatory debt collection practices. Some of the proposed changes will...

Download the written testimony of Whitney Barkley-Denney submitted in advance of the September 14 hearing on interstate reciprocity agreements in higher education.

The Financial CHOICE Act attacks the CFPB's structure and authority and would frustrate the CFPB's ability to fulfill its mission. Title III of the bill is aimed at obstructing the CFPB's ability to protect consumers from predatory financial products and practices. This title severely weakens the CFPB’s structure and authority in the following ways: Changes the structure of the CFPB...

We are encouraged that the Department's proposal would generally require all providers of distance education to obtain state authorization in each state where they intend to enroll students. However, we have concerns that distance education students could still be subject to weaker protections under the proposed rule, for the following reasons: The proposal would permit state authorization through the use...

CRL strongly supports the CFPB’s proposed rule to limit pre-dispute mandatory (forced) arbitration clauses in consumer finance contracts. Forced arbitration is a widespread issue affecting a plethora of financial products and services; it impacts the consumers CRL advocates for and implicates CRL’s mission to eliminate abusive financial practices. CRL applauds the CFPB for its efforts to restore consumers’ ability to...

This letter, on behalf of the National Consumer Law Center’s low-income clients, along with a coalition of national, state and local civil legal aid, civil rights, and public interest groups and advocates, calls for the need for data to ensure that the federal student loan program is a tool that helps students of color access a meaningful education and achieve...

CRL Response to “Reframing the Debate about Payday Lending by Liberty Street Economics” Research Comment On: "Do Defaults on Payday Loans Matter?" by Robert Mann Research Comment On: "Payday Loan Rollovers and Consumer Welfare" CRL Critique of “Payday Holiday: How Households Fare After Payday Credit Bans” by Donald P. Morgan and Michael R. Strain CRL Review of "Defining and Detecting...

This letter suggests improvements to the rule that would amend the Borrower Defense to Repayment provision of the Higher Education Act (HEA) in order to ensure that students and taxpayers will not have to bear the economic burdens that arise when higher learning institutions make misrepresentations and fail to provide an adequate education to students. CRL applauds the Department for...

This paper analyzes California mortgage originations in the post-crisis period, from 2012–2014, using data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). Similar national analysis provides context for the state-wide observations. Analysis in four large California counties shows the variety of experiences across this large state. The main findings include: National and state-wide analysis reveal a reduction in mortgage credit...

Read Graciela Aponte-Diaz's remarks before the July 2016 CFPB Field Hearing on Debt Collection. The unfair and abusive practices of debt collection in the market can take advantage of financially-distressed consumers or unfairly strip families of wealth. The Great Recession made this financial distress inevitable for many U.S. households. Each year, tens of millions of Americans are pursued by creditors...

A recent poll conducted by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting finds overwhelming bipartisan support for strong regulation of financial services and products in order to hold financial services companies accountable and protect consumers against unfair practices. By wide margins, Americans call for tough oversight and regulation of Wall Street banks, mortgage companies and credit card servicers, as well...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a new national rule that addresses payday and car title lending. The proposal, as written, has some useful elements, but it is seriously undermined by several major loopholes. If the loopholes aren’t closed in the final version, the rule could essentially permit payday predators to conduct business as usual. What We Can...

A recent blog post by Liberty Street Economics, Reframing the Debate about Payday Lending, mischaracterizes the debate around payday lending and downplays the harms done to vulnerable consumers. Payday lenders and their allies have referenced the blog to justify their ongoing efforts to delay and weaken much needed regulation at both the state and federal level. The Center for Responsible...

The proposed rule takes the right general approach by establishing an ability-to-repay principle – including consideration of income and expenses – at its core. This is extremely significant; while a long-standing tenet of responsible lending, it is one ignored by these abusive industries driven by unaffordable loans. It is a particularly important standard for high-cost loans where lenders have the...

The following blog post by Mike Calhoun and Sarah Wolff originally appeared on the Urban Institute’s Housing Policy Center: http://urbn.is/29rYamw Any housing finance system’s ability to provide broad access and affordability is predicated on two factors: how prices are set and, equally importantly, how costs are distributed. Price is important to focus on for many reasons; chief among them is...

A better enforced and strengthened CRA would be a critical tool in ensuring that underserved communities across the country are provided with the credit opportunities needed to better recover from the 2008 financial crisis. While more affluent neighborhoods have bounced back or have begun to bounce back following the crisis, many low- and moderate-income neighborhoods continue to struggle eight years...

An analysis of recently available data confirms that financial institutions continue to engage in abusive overdraft practices and that reform is urgently needed. This issue brief highlights five key concerns: Overdraft fees remain an enormous drain on checking account customers. Using newly available call report data as the starting point, we estimate that consumers pay nearly $14 billion annually in...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is widely expected to soon propose a new national rule that addresses payday and car title lending. If strong enough, the rule has the potential to rein in the worst abuses of these kinds of high-cost loans, which carry triple-digit interest rates. Payday lenders are pushing for loopholes in the rule that would make...

The topic of student loan debt is increasingly gaining public attention. Too often, assumptions about debt are made that hide the real contours of the problem. For example, simply citing aggregated student loan debt loads at a state or national level suggests that every student loan borrower is the same– with identical financial backgrounds, borrowing to attend similar institutions, and...

This memo summarizes the findings from a statewide poll of 501 likely 2016 general election voters in Colorado. Only those registered voters who had participated in a past general election were invited to participate, as well as any new registrants since the November 2012 election. View the polling questions and topline results. (PDF)

This letter commends Representative Wasserman Schultz for cosponsoring the Stopping Abuse and Fraud in Electronic (SAFE) Lending Act of 2016 and urges her to withdraw support from H.R. 4018. That bill would export the problematic "Florida model" of payday lending laws to the rest of the country. Florida's payday laws are riddled with loopholes: the average borrower is saddled with...

This letter signed by CRL along with 163 other organizations urges the CFPB to use its Congressional authority to restrict forced arbitration. Lenders and other financial services companies use forced arbitration to push consumers out of court and into a private arbitration system that they tilt to favor large financial interests. The CFPB’s empirical findings in its comprehensive and evidence-based...

This letter urges the Bureau to establish a strong rule addressing payday, car title, and similar loans. It focuses on the migration of payday and car title lenders to long-term loans that keep borrowers trapped in prolonged unaffordable debt. This migration is already well underway in the states where long-term, high-rate loans are permitted, and lenders are already aggressively seeking...

This letter urges the opposition of HR 1261 or any similar bills that undermine the independence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by subjecting it to the appropriations process. It is less than five years since the CFPB was established. Since then, it has fulfilled Congress's vision of a federal agency with "the authority and accountability to ensure that...

In a Statement for the Record to the Hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Assessing the Effects of Consumer Finance Regulations, CRL expresses its support for post-crisis lending rules that have made the financial system safer by eliminating abusive financial products, reining in reckless behavior, and encouraging more effective oversight.