CRL in the News

“They are moving in several ways at once to eliminate the cop on the beat — or the effectiveness of the cop on the beat — to keep people from being trapped in unaffordable debt,” said Ellen Harnick, an executive vice president at the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit that has advocated for the agency.

Mitria Spotser, vice president and director of federal policy at the Center for Responsible Lending, called for more regulations with regard to EWA and BNPL. “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck,” she said. “Buy now, pay later, early wage access – they look, act and function like credit. They look and function and act like capital and loans. They should be regulated as such.”

Under the current CRA rules, around 90% of banks receive a “satisfactory” grade and 10% receive “outstanding” marks, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition estimated in a comment letter to the agencies. A “needs to improve” or “substantial noncompliance” score is exceedingly rare. “It was pretty easy to get a pass on CRA exams,” said Mitria Spotser, federal policy director at the Center for Responsible Lending.

The Center for Responsible Lending helped write the report. The group's spokesperson, Rochelle Sparko, said they're urging judges to waive civil penalties for those unable to pay them. "It is our position that this is a far better outcome for folks who truly are indigent, then converting fines and fees to a civil judgment largely because of those long term and sometimes really awful consequences," Sparko said.

In his Oct. 1 op-ed, “Diminish Congress’s taste for diminishment,” George F. Will urged the Supreme Court to affirm a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that invalidated funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This decision is contradicted by constitutional text, historical practice and judicial precedent, including recent rulings by the 2nd Circuit, D.C. Circuit and six other federal courts.

George F. Will argued that the Supreme Court should hold the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding unconstitutional to “strengthen Congress.” This is an Orwellian claim if ever there were one, because such a decision would strip Congress of a power it has exercised since the nation’s founding.

HORSLEY: You know, the CFPB is popular with the public. Polls show Democrats and Republicans alike feel it's useful to have an agency that's looking out for them in their dealings with often much more sophisticated financial institutions. Over the years, the bureau has recovered some $17 billion for consumers. It's gone after not only predatory lenders, but debt collectors and student loan servicers and ordinary banks with their overdraft fees. Mike Calhoun, who heads the Center for Responsible Lending, says no agency is really immune from politics. But the bureau has proven to be pretty

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency that rose from the wreckage of the Great Recession, is readying for a high-stakes fight Tuesday at the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court has a choice in its ruling: it can side with judicial precedent, historical practice, common sense, and text of the Constitution—or it can side with payday lenders and economic chaos,” said Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, one of the groups represented at the rally.

Student debt can also ripple from one generation to the next, those at the CBCF conference emphasized. That debt makes it harder to build wealth as "the disproportionate impact of student loan debt on Black borrowers…has been demonstrated to exacerbate the racial wealth gap," a study from the Center for Responsible Lending found.