Research

The latest mortgage data through second quarter 2010 show that while mortgage companies have stepped up their efforts outside the HAMP program, loan repairs are still dwarfed by the foreclosure epidemic. The chart below vividly illustrates that Federal efforts to stop foreclosures through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) simply aren't keeping pace with the foreclosure epidemic. Notes on chart CRL testifies before Congress on at least a dozen ways we can do more to stop foreclosures. Take a look at foreclosures in your area: State Fact Sheets. Lower payments make loan mods that...

Definitions and Notes Video of Sonia Press Release In a hearing on " Current Trends in Foreclosure and What More Can Be Done to Prevent Them," CRL urged Congress to take several actions to address the flood of foreclosures and fix the broken mortgage market: Create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency; pass or encourage sensible lending rules in the future; ensure that current prevention efforts are as effective as possible; and lift the ban that now prohibits home loan modifications through the courts. Resources for Consumers Definitions and Notes (Back to Top) - This chart focuses...

A proposal for improving our financial system An essential component of the Obama Administration's proposal for improving oversight of our financial system would correct the current lack of adequate consumer protection standards that has plagued our financial system, and imperiled our economy. A new Consumer Financial Products Agency ("CFPA") would implement sensible protections and make sure that companies follow them. In addition to mortgages, the CFPA would protect consumers from out-of-bounds practices by mortgage lenders, credit cards, overdraft programs, and other credit and banking...

Read a condensed version of this report (PDF) Introduction For too long the responsibility for protecting consumers has been fragmented among various federal regulators whose primary focus was the safety and soundness of the banking system. Consumer protection often went neglected, if anything, an afterthought or a box to check. Federal regulators' failure to restrain abuses that led to today's credit crisis demonstrates the need for a single agency focused on protecting consumers to ensure financial institutions flourish in a sustainable way. To succeed in protecting consumers, this agency...

The following are some of the highlights of the report conducted by the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions on the $73 million title lending industry in Tennessee: High Interest Rates Remain. Annual rates for car title loans are still 264%. Still a Lemon for Borrowers. According to the report, half of the new loans made in 2006 were for $500 or less and 82% were for less than $1000. The average loan amount was only $557.00. More Borrowers Lose Their Cars. There were a total of 18,199 vehicles repossessed in 2006. It appears that about 10,000 loans are originated each month (based on...

Download the complete report >> (PDF, 31 pp.) Download the executive summary >> (PDF 4 pp.) Watch our 2 minute video press release on Phantom Demand Leslie Parrish discusses the findings in this 9 minute webinar A full three quarters of loan volume of the payday lending industry is generated by borrowers who, after meeting the short-term due date of the loan, must re-borrow before their next pay period Repeat borrowing of what is marketed as a short-term loan of a few hundred dollars has long been documented, but this report verifies for the first time how quickly most payday lending customers...

Payday industry tries to discredit CRL research... again Industry dollars funded supposed academic research A front group for the payday lending industry paid a college professor, Thomas Lehman, to write a pro-payday research report last year. The front group is Consumer Credit Research Foundation (CCRF), whose public relations director told BusinessWeek that CCRF is funded by the payday lending industry. ("This Opinion Brought To You By...", BusinessWeek Online, Jan. 30, 2006.) CCRF has now sponsored a critique--also authored by Lehman-- of CRL's "Race Matters" paper. "Race Matters" found...

Industry arguments in support of payday lending hinge on one highly-flawed paper. Not only are there significant questions about the accuracy of that research, but it runs counter to the findings of many other studies. Paige Marta Skiba (Vanderbilt) and Jeremy Tobacman (U. of Pennsylvania), Do Payday Loans Cause Bankruptcy? http://tinyurl.com/skiba-tobacman-BK Using a database of 145,000 payday loan applicants from a large payday and pawn lender in Texas, Skiba and Tobacman compare payday borrowers with similarly situated applicants who were denied payday loans to determine whether this type...

Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) In recent years, federal bank regulators looked the other way as tricky financial products with hidden costs and fees crowded out responsible loans. Dangerous products have stifled true innovation, depriving consumers of meaningful choices and leading the nation into today's financial crisis. We don't always need more regulation, but rather more effective regulation that is targeted and up-to-date. CRL is a member of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of nearly 200 national, state and local consumer, employee, investor, community and civil...

Reckless lending practices that became rampant in recent years have devastated the economy, costing Americans billions of dollars in lost wealth and resulting in the weakest economy since the great Depression. Unfortunately, the regulators overseeing bank safety and consumer protections fell down on the job. Congress has taken a number of actions to investigate the causes of the financial meltdown, and key legislation has been proposed or passed to clean up abusive lending practices on home loans and credit cards. Most recently, on June 17, 2009, the Obama Administration released its plan for...