For years, federal bank regulators looked the other way; now Congress has a chance to reform our system of checks and balances, make banks accountable, and protect consumers from abusive financial products that caused our current economic crisis

For years, federal bank regulators looked the other way; now Congress has a chance to reform our system of checks and balances, make banks accountable, and protect consumers from abusive financial products that caused our current economic crisis

As Congress considers how to address improving consumer protection and regulation of our financial system going forward over the next several months, we offer six essential principles for achieving true regulatory reform.

This summary focuses only on the consumer protection component of the Obama Administration’s Financial Regulatory Reform proposal.

This summary focuses only on the consumer protection component of the Obama Administration’s Financial Regulatory Reform proposal.

Kathleen Keest, Senior Policy Counsel at CRL, testified before the House Financial Services Committee on CRL's support for a strong, state-of-the-art consumer protection agency for financial products -- provided that the agency is independent of the companies it regulates, and fully transparent and accountable to the public.

CRL explores the payday lending industry’s attempt to deny the importance of the APR, or annual percentage rate of interest, in disclosing the cost of their 400 percent interest product, which routinely catches borrowers in a cycle of financially devastating long-term debt.

Mandatory arbitration study. CRL's analysis shows consumers lack rights in forced arbitration (binding mandatory arbitration). Almost all credit card contracts with major issuers contain a hidden “forced arbitration” clause. Other loan contracts, such as auto loans, often require forced arbitration as well. Settling legal disputes through arbitration is presented as an alternative that can save time and money, however, in many cases it does neither.

CRL's comments on proposed housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac support incentives to modify distressed mortgages.

This memorandum provides a comparative analysis of H.R. 627 (the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009), as passed by the House on April 30, 2009, and the amendment in the nature of a substitute prepared by the Senate Banking Committee.

Testimony of Kathleen E. Keest on behalf of the Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Federation of America, and the National Consumer Law Center before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Committee on Energy and Commerce in regards to H.R. 2309: The Consumer Credit and Debt Protection Act.

A quick sampling of credit card issuers’ recent activities in response to the Federal Reserve rule changes that were announced in December 2008 found the top eight issuers--Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Capital One, HSBC, Discover, American Express, and Wells Fargo-- are raising interest rates on a larger portion of customers than usual and increasing the number of fees they impose.

This is CRL's third report on the spillover impact of mortgage foreclosures. This new report is based on new CRL projections of 2.4 million foreclosures for all loans (not just subprime) in 2009, and 9 million during 2009-2012. This report also reflects a somewhat more conservative methodology for calculating the spillover impact.

This paper provides new data showing the disproportionate use of RALs among EITC recipients in Native communities with an analysis of EITC recipients in 10 states with large shares of Native Americanpopulation and lands.

Brief facts about overdraft loans, largely derived from CRL research

The Center for Responsible Lending, along with Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), and U.S. PIRG provide the following comments regarding the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed rule to amend Regulation E pursuant to the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.

CRL conducted a national survey to measure public support for one strategy on the table: a 36 percent cap on annual interest rates for consumer loans. The survey found high levels of support for such a measure, which had very little variance across different demographic groups.

New CRL analysis finds that California's payday lenders overwhelmingly locate in African-American and Latino neighborhoods, even after controlling for income and other factors, and drain $247 million in the process

Highlights of legislation CRL endorsed which focuses on ways to fix the foreclosure crisis

A survey of consumer preferences regading overdraft fees and the choice to opt-in to such programs.