Research

Download our report "Mainstream Banks Making Payday Loans" (PDF) UPDATE April 2010. A spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency told a reporter that the loans described in this report are not payday loans -- that the OCC has no problem with banks making them. "It's not a payday loan. It's available through banks and bank branches...

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...

When homeowners are at risk of losing their home to foreclosure, the last thing they need is an extra tax bill. Congress passed the 2007 Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act ("the 2007 Act") specifically to avoid imposing extra taxes on distressed families, but as currently written, the law doesn't work. In passing the 2007 Act, Congress recognized that taxing this...

Presented by Kathleen Keest, Senior Policy Counsel-Center for Responsible Lending at the symposium "The Subprime Housing Crisis: Interdisciplinary Policy Perspectives" October 10-11, 2008 at The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA In many respects, events have overtaken this conference. In 2006, CRL released a study that projected 2.2 million foreclosures of subprime mortgages. [1] But by this spring, Credit Suisse...

Report Author: Josh Frank As of Jan 12, 2010, the Federal Reserve has effectively ended the "pick-a-rate" practice and the use of variable rate floors. These two abuses are featured in the 12/10/09 Dodging Reform report. Download the full report >> Download the executive summary >> Download table of abusive practices >> CRL's new report, Dodging Reform, finds: Issuers have...

Did you know that 6 out of 10 people who received subprime loans during the height of the lending boom could have qualified for a lower-cost mortgage--and it was completely legal? The vast majority of subprime loans made by mortgage brokers or loan officers came with a "yield-spread premium" – a kickback that brokers received from lenders in exchange for...

Did you know that 6 out of 10 people who received subprime loans in 2006 could have qualified for a lower-cost mortgage, but didn't get the better deal because their mortgage broker earned a "kickback" for steering them to the higher-cost loan. And all this was completely legal. The Federal Reserve Board is now deciding whether to fix this by...

Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs on Tuesday, November 17, 2009. Mr. Calhoun offered support for the FAIR Overdraft Protection Act, introduced by Senator Christopher Dodd, as urgent and necessary reform for abusive bank overdraft fees.

The most common type of large loan held by Americans is the loan that finances their car—yet a recent mark-up of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) bill would allow auto dealers to be exempt from basic oversight that could save American families billions. Many dealers are like loan brokers: they typically write the car loans, then sell the loan...

And guess what! That's a GOOD thing. Bank of America and Citibank cover debit card and ATM overdrafts only if their customers have signed up for more reasonably priced coverage, by linking their savings or line of credit to their checking account. Q: Why is this A GOOD THING? No more surprise high-cost overdrafts at the ATM or checkout for...