Research

As the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) considers how best to manage mortgage risk CRL responded to its offer for comments. Discouraging fees that would create unnecessary barriers to homeownership, CRL called for a reduction in Guarantee Fees, also known as 'g-fees', and reminds FHFA of its duty to serve the entire market.

CRL provided a comment for the record on some of the issues covered in the Senate Banking Committee's hearing, "Financial Products for Students: Issues and Challenges" held on July 31, 2014. Students must make important choices related to how much they borrow and from what source, as well as how to conduct every day financial transactions and receive financial aid...

View our infographic summary of consumer protections in 2013 Responsible financial products and services play an important role in the lives of Americans: helping families pay for goods and services, manage risk, borrow to build assets and save and invest for the future. However, predatory features of financial products and services can have devastating consequences. They can trap consumers in...

This letter is written to the Chairman of the HELP Committee, Senator Tom Harkin (D – IA), as he seeks to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The reauthorization aims to make substantive reforms to protect students and address critical student lending issues, including student loan servicing, private student loans, for-profit colleges, and school-bank partnerships.

In these comments, CRL expresses general support for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposals to amend the 2013 Mortgage Rules under the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z). Additionally, CRL calls for more clarity to help prevent potential abuses to legitimate nonprofit organizations and to the right to cure provisions addressing errors.

CRL added its support to a broad coalition calling for the Department of Education to ensure that its final gainful employment rulemaking must be strengthened to protect both students and taxpayers. This comment letter identifies four specific initiatives to ensure that taxpayers dollars do not support waste, fraud or abuse.

On May 27, 2014, the Center for Responsible Lending submitted a comment to the Department of Education in response to their proposed gainful employment rule. In the comment, senior policy counsel Maura Dundon highlights: how for-profit colleges may fail to provide students the skills or education necessary to seek gainful employment, yet still be the beneficiaries of federal financial aid...

Car title loans, like payday loans, are marketed as a quick financial fix, but lead to long-term debt and carry 300% annual interest rates. A typical borrower pays twice as much in interest and fees than she receives in credit extended. Nationally, car title lending drains $4.3 billion annually in excessive fees. Car title lenders systematically disregard a borrower's ability...

Responding to an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, CRL addresses harmful practices that have become common in the debt buying and third-party debt collection industries. Debt buyers typically acquire charged-off debt without any supporting documentation. Too often account information is inaccurate, outdated or missing, and third-party collectors may use abusive tactics to pursue debt that may or may not be...