Research & Policy

A Bipartisan Opportunity to Help Homeowners (Excerpt) Read the entire document (PDF) >> A bill in the U.S. Senate would more than double the number of homeowners who could refinance under a federal mortgage program and more than double their potential savings, a Columbia University Business School study estimates. Senate bill 3085, introduced by Senators Robert Menendez and Barbara Boxer...

Read the press release >> Although the national foreclosure crisis is now in its fifth year, it is far from over—particularly for California. The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that there are still nearly 700,000 California homeowners who are at least 30 days delinquent or in the foreclosure process. While not all of these impending foreclosures can or should be...

During the course of negotiations, the Joint Conference Committee on Mortgage Foreclosures has substantially narrowed the scope of the bill and limited the protections to borrowers relative to the version of the bills that were before the Assembly and Senate Banking Committees earlier this year. Specific changes include: Narrower Scope of Coverage: the final bill includes a number of changes...

California is only halfway through the foreclosure crisis, with more than 670,000 California households at risk of foreclosure: Data from CRL's report, Lost Ground, 2011 show that 9.3 percent of all loans originated between 2004 and 2008 – 581,000 – have already resulted in completed foreclosure, but that another 8.9 percent (549,000) were at immediate risk of foreclosure. At the...

As the nation struggles through the sixth year of the foreclosure crisis, there are no signs that the flood of home losses in America will recede anytime soon. California, through its African-American and Latino homeowners in particular, has and will continue to suffer dramatic losses of both homes and wealth, and will see an erosion of decades of socioeconomic progress...

The FDIC has promised to make investigation of bank payday lending a priority. In response to a letter submitted by 250 advocates, Acting Chairman Martin Gruenberg said the banking regulator is concerned that banks are violating guidelines for fair and affordable products. </p>

Good afternoon. The Center for Responsible Lending is a non-profit research and policy organization dedicated to protecting home-ownership and family wealth. Let's begin with the following premise: In terms of technology and hence core product costs, general purpose reloadable prepaid cards are indistinguishable from debit cards associated with checkless checking accounts. Both prepaid and debit cards must maintain a database...

CRL President Michael Calhoun testifies before a House Financial Services subcommittee on the benefits of strong lending protections. Financial reform, including the CFPB, is good for American families as well as bank safety and soundness.

What hurts consumers financially also hurts business Watch report author and CRL Senior Researcher Josh Frank discuss the report findings. Read the full report >> Read the executive summary >> CRL research shows losses on credit cards in the current downturn rose faster at banks using unfair, deceptive practices. High-cost penalty fees and interest rates didn't mitigate risk—as credit card...

California foreclosure statistics show record losses in recent years are likely to continue into the future On average, more than 500 California families have lost their homes every day since 4Q 2007, and the data show few signs of a return to the pre-crisis housing market. California foreclosure activity remains elevated, with more than 30,000 completed foreclosures each quarter, compared...

Interest rates are at historic lows, but many homeowners who could benefit from these low rates have not refinanced their higher-rate mortgage. In this testimony, CRL President Michael Calhoun recommends expanding the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) to prevent unnecessary foreclosures and boost economic recovery.

CRL and other allied organizations are pleased to submit the following comments on payday lending abuses in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's request after its January field hearing in Birmingham, Alabama. CRL and the other organizations appreciate the chance to comment on the debt trap inherent to payday lending, and are grateful for the supervisory guidance on payday...

Attorney General Kamala Harris is sponsoring a package of bills (the Homeowner Bill of Rights) designed to mitigate the foreclosure crisis and provide Californians with greater protections in the foreclosure process.

Download the Full Report (PDF) >> Read our Comments to the FTC on Yo-Yo Scams (PDF) >> View a Brief Presentation on the Report (Powerpoint)>&gt Learn How Yo-Yo Scams Work >> How Dealers Rig the Game Watch this video to learn more about yo-yo scams and the latest paper. Throughout 2011, the Federal Trade Commission convened a series of roundtables...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act makes unfair and deceptive acts and practices (UDAP) unlawful and empowers and directs the FTC to prevent such acts and practices through rule-making and enforcement. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ("Dodd-Frank") provided clear FTC jurisdiction over most auto dealers, particularly when entering into finance transactions with consumers, while freeing the...

Forty-nine state attorneys generals and two government agencies have reached a $25 billion agreement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers to address mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure abuses. Here we provide a quick-reference summary of the terms of this agreement. Background and additional resources

The NCLC/CFA 2012 Refund Anticipation Loan Report Read the report >> Chi Chi Wu, National Consumer Law Center Contributing author: Jean Ann Fox, Consumer Federation of America ? Executive Summary Refund anticipation loans (RALs) are one to two week loans made by banks, facilitated by tax preparers, and secured by the taxpayer's expected tax refund. RALs can carry triple digit...

Some 250 advocates urged four federal regulators to end the predatory practice of bank payday lending on February 22, 2012. The CFPB, OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve Board can and should stop Wells Fargo, US Bank, Fifth Third Bank and Regions Bank from trapping their customers in long-term debt at 400% annual interest. Maps, video, slides and the latest news...

Some 250 advocates urged four federal regulators to end the predatory practice of bank payday lending on February 22, 2012. The CFPB, OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve Board can and should stop Wells Fargo, US Bank, Fifth Third Bank and Regions Bank from trapping their customers in long-term debt at 400% annual interest. The Honorable Ben S. Bernanke Chairman Board...

"Rampant, Pervasive Fraud" Maryland's AG, Doug Gansler, gives a quick overview of the national mortgage settlement, noting that "this is just a down payment by the national banks," not the end of the story. As foreclosures mounted in recent years, the mortgage servicing industry often responded with illegal shortcuts, illegal fees and incompetent management. The situation became so bad that...

Using tax filing data, this fact sheet from the Urban Institute demonstrates dramatic behavioral differences among the banked and unbanked in their use of two at-times costly tax-time financial products, refund anticipation checks (RACs) and refund anticipation loans (RALs). Banked tax filers are much more likely to avoid such products. Even for those who are otherwise similar in income and...

The Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumer Law Center, and on behalf of its low-income clients the National Council of La Raza have filed the following comments to the FTC in regards to the current state of auto lending and the recent motor...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the nation's first federal agency to focus solely on consumer financial issues, reached an important milestone. The agency's first report to Congress was delivered to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on January 31 by its recently-appointed Director, Richard Cordray. Speaking to the committee, Cordray said in part, "We plan to use all of the...

A few provisions of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act that President Obama signed into law May 2009 took effect immediately, and a few didn't take effect until August of that year. But most of the provisions took effect February 22, 2010. While these new rules are a significant improvement from the status quo that pervaded credit card...

As federal regulators consider setting down-payment standards on new mortgages, this research shows such rules could push 60% of creditworthy borrowers into high-cost loans or out of the market altogether. A proposal by regulators to define a high-quality mortgage as one with at least a 10% or 20% down payment would hobble a healthy segment of the housing market. While...