Research & Policy

As the U.S. Senate Banking Committee prepared for a March 20, 2013 vote on the reappointment of CFPB Director Richard Cordray, CRL urged committee members to swiftly act and confirm him.

Dear Chairman Bernanke, Director Cordray, Director Gruenberg, and Comptroller Curry: One year ago, we wrote to urge the federal regulators of our nation's banks to take immediate action to stop banks from making unaffordable, high-cost payday loans. We were encouraged by the FDIC's May letter indicating that it was deeply concerned and was investigating the practice, and we have also...

Banks that engage in payday lending have been in the media spotlight. Here we give a large sample of recent media coverage, legislative proposals, and public concerns directed at debt-trap lending by banks.

Joint Recommendations from CRL and Consumers Union States have yet to recover from the foreclosure crisis that has stripped trillions of dollars from homeowners and devastated local communities across the nation. Industry analysts estimate that 6 million borrowers remain at risk of foreclosure. States are in a strong position to prevent unnecessary foreclosures, stabilize local housing markets and protect homeowners...

Joint research from CRL and the Consumer Federation of America finds that car-title loans—small-dollar loans secured by the title to a vehicle owned outright—cost U.S. consumers $3.6 billion a year in interest on $1.6 billion in loans. Read the Full Report Read the Executive Summary These products share many of payday loans' predatory features: triple-digit interest rates, balloon payments at...

Applying safety and soundness standards to bank payday loan products follows longstanding principles and policy of the prudential regulators. Consistently, the prudential regulators, including the OCC, FDIC and the Federal Reserve, have addressed problems with a variety of consumer lending products by citing not only consumer protection concerns, but also safety and soundness concerns, even when those products are very...

On February 23, the New York Times published an article describing how some banks enable Internet payday lending. In this brief, CRL provides additional legal context to supplement that article.

CRL and allied organizations maintain that CFPB's proposal addresses two issues critical to the future of safe, sustainable, and affordable access to mortgage credit. First, it considers how to define compensation for the purpose of calculating the points and fees cap contained in the qualified mortgage definition. Second, it proposes a series of exemptions for specialized lending programs and financial...

The Center for American Progress, Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Federation of America and the National Council of LaRaza respond to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal on the Ability to Repay Standards. The allies offered specific practices to ensure affordable access to mortgage credit. Two specific issues formed the crux of their concerns: How mortgage lending compensation is defined...

A recent CoreLogic report ( The Mortgage Market Impact of Qualified Mortgage Regulation) asserts that 48 percent of the mortgage market would not qualify as a "safe loan" under new Qualified Mortgage (QM) guidelines. CRL's review of this study finds that CoreLogic's model unnecessarily excludes certain categories of loans and makes broad (and possibly unwarranted) assumptions about the expiration of...

This is CRL's comment to the CFPB in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Request for Information Regarding Credit Card Market. In this response, CRL argues that the Credit CARD Act of 2009 has made pricing clearer without restricting credit, raising its cost or curbing the ability of card issuers to price for risk. Contrary to curbing risk-based pricing...

Payday Loans Create a Debt Trap. For California families living paycheck to paycheck, the high price of a payday loan and the fact that it must be paid off in one lump sum two short weeks later virtually ensures that cash-strapped borrowers will be unable to meet their basic expenses and pay off their loan with their next paycheck. Consequently...

The Dodd?Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) includes a common sense reform that requires lenders to determine whether borrowers could actually repay a mortgage before that transaction takes place. The law also includes a streamlined way to meet this new requirement, which is making loans that meet a "Qualified Mortgage" standard. QM loans also have benefits for...

Nationwide, foreclosures have drained nearly $2 trillion in property value from families who live nearby, more than half of them African-American or Latino.* This loss in wealth has hit some areas of the country harder than others. Here we break down the spillover costs for each state, showing total lost wealth, number of households affected and average home equity lost...

This chapter in the State of Lending report series describes the overall financial status of U.S. households today--their income, spending, debts, and wealth. It tells the story of financial challenges that consumers have faced in the past decade, and how these have made Americans more vulnerable to predatory lending. It also describes how household financial health is central to our...

Purchasing a car is a complicated endeavor, and the sales price, trade-in value, and financing are all separate and negotiable transactions. This chapter outlines how car dealers have become increasingly reliant on revenues from vehicle financing and insurance, yet those transactions are not transparent and are weakly regulated. As a result, predatory practices have created more expensive and unsustainable loans...

Figuring out how to pay for college can be difficult. In this video, Andrea Harris (President of the NC Institute of Minority Economic Development) discusses three important things that parents and students should remember when looking for financial aid or student loans.

In the U.S. today, total student loan debt exceeds $1 trillion and nearly one in five households has a student loan. This chapter discusses factors leading to the growth in student loan debt and highlights important differences between federal and more costly private student loans. The chapter also shows the spike in student loan defaults and highlights the role of...

CRL Senior Research Debbie Bocian covers the key findings in the "Mortgages" chapter of State of Lending. </p>

During the car buying process, you may spend hours researching prices, but make sure the vehicle financing is a good deal, too! Use this infographic to understand your auto loan options. To embed our infographic to your site, simply cut and paste the code below

State of Lending outlines predatory lending practices in various fields of consumer lending, and explains why protecting fair, affordable access to credit is vital for both consumers and the U.S. economy. It also describes the regulatory and legislative actions needed to halt the predatory lending practices that exist today and prevent the rise of new abuses. Read the Foreword Return...

This infographic shows the changes in the use of plastic payments, including credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards. To embed our infographic to your site, simply just cut and paste the code below

Center for Responsible Lending

Credit cards are one of the most common purchasing tools used by Americans, with many households relying on credit cards to pay for basic living costs. In the past, credit card companies took advantage of this reliance by engaging in unfair and deceptive practices such as complicated pricing and high fees. This chapter describes these abusive practices and the reforms...