Research

Read our report >> Our new research shows that the foreclosure crisis is not over, and runaway foreclosures continue to drain hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth from families, hitting communities of color the hardest. An estimated 2.5 million foreclosures were completed from 2007 – 2009, and an estimated 5.7 additional ones are imminent. An estimated 17% of Latino homeowners and 11% of African-American homeowners have already lost their home to foreclosure or are now at imminent risk. The great majority of homes lost were owner occupied, as are those at imminent risk of being lost. Read...

Louise Golden's backyard is a showplace. She planted everything with her own hands: crepe myrtle, pink peonies, azaleas, and roses of four colors. She and her husband, Stanley, bought the split-level house on Kepner Court in Lanham, Maryland, in 1980. She loved the place from the start, because of its roomy kitchen, and because of the possibilities she saw in the backyard. "This was the one," Golden, now 79, recalls thinking. The Goldens were like many African-American families who found homes in Prince George's County over the past few decades, helping to make the Washington, D.C. suburb one...

The auto dealer lobby successfully fought to receive a special exemption in the House from the rules of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the financial reform bill even when the dealers act as creditors and brokers on car loans. But fair, honest and ethical competition requires a level playing field, as well as a fair and consistent system for accountability.

An Examination of Credit Card Late Fees Read the entire "A Just Fee or Just a Fee?" 13 page research report. Brief background on the report plus report findings: The CARD Act of 2009 brought strong credit card reform to the industry and benefits to cardholders, but the penalty late fee issue remains to be addressed. Congress assigned the Federal Reserve to interpret what "reasonable and proportional" penalty fees means according to the borrower's violation, a credit card late payment, for example. This timely CRL report informs the discussion of credit card issuers and penalty late fees...

Reconciling H.R 4173 and S. 3217 During recent years, regulators stood by and allowed the most costly reckless lending in history, largely because they were heavily influenced by the very businesses they were supposed to oversee. Lax regulation has already cost trillions of dollars. For the final financial reform bill, these four issues will be vital in protecting taxpayers from another crisis in the future: To be successful, the new CFPB needs an independent source of funding and a fair and transparent rule-making process. CFPB must be able to write rules across industries. And new mortgage...

To ensure that the CFPA is independent of the industry it is trying to regulate, Congress must ensure that the funding source remains independent of political pressure.

The Consumer Financial Protection Agency should be headed by a strong, independent-minded director, rather than a five-member commission, to ensure that the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is free from industry influence and costly delays.

The Snowe-Pryor Senate financial reform bill proposal would create a layer of bureaucracy that is redundant and dangerous. This language would prioritize small businesses over families, taxpayers and other key stakeholders.

Three servicers. Three California homeowners. Three avoidable foreclosures. Three Ways SB 1275 Would Help Stop the Foreclosures that can be Stopped Patricia and Manuel Mondoy, Hayward, Calif. Under SB 1275, GMAC would have been required to complete its evaluation of Patricia and Manuel M.'s loan modification before recording a Notice of Default. If GMAC had completed the evaluation process before initiating foreclosure, the borrowers would have received a modification without having to go through both a foreclosure and an eviction proceeding and over six months of uncertainty about whether or...

Summary of SB 1275 (As Amended 5-18-10) Section 2923.4: New Notice for Delinquent Borrowers on Foreclosure Process, Rights and Obligations Requires a state agency to create and translate a notice for delinquent borrowers that describes a borrower's rights and obligations, and outlines what to expect in the foreclosure process. (Specific text included in bill). Section 2923.5: Pre-NOD Determination for Loan Modification and Borrower Solicitation Requirements Pre-NoD Requirements. Provides that a servicer may not file a Notice of Default (initiating the foreclosure process) until all applicable...