CRL in the News

On the homeownership front, research by the Center for Responsible Lending has found that Black and Latino mortgage borrowers are disproportionately dependent upon FHA financing, and still have scant access to the most affordable and sustainable mortgages – 30-year fixed rate conventional ones. This heavy reliance on FHA financing even includes upper income Blacks and Latinos who could be eligible for conventional lending. Further, as many banks have withdrawn from the mortgage market, non-depository lending has increased. By 2016, eight of the top 10 FHA lenders were non-depositories.

Among consumer advocates, Mulvaney’s actions are as unprecedented as they are bizarre. For more than a decade, research by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has consistently found that these small-dollar loans pick the pockets of working people at a rate of $8 billion in fees ever year.

These fees cost consumers an estimated $14 billion a year, according to consumer watchdogs. Often, consumers are charged several fees, which average $35 each, within a short time period, according to research by the Center for Responsible Lending.

Proponents argue that raising the asset threshold at which banks are subject to enhanced regulatory standards, including stress tests that gauge a bank’s ability to withstand economic conditions like those that led to the 2008 financial crisis, would help small and regional banks. But the bill actually helps very large banks with up to $250 billion in assets. This is not a consumer friendly bill. The Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization opposed the bill argues that, “Instead of threatening the American economy with one gallon of poison or two, Congress should

The Center for Responsible Lending, an organization that calls for more safeguards for consumers, found in 2015 that payday loan storefronts in Ohio advertised rates of more than 600 percent annual percentage rate. Diane Standaert, director of state policy, said that since that time some storefronts now reflect rates between 300 and 400 percent for some loans. "But this is basically comparing the differences between (1) a very bad loan, and (2) another very bad loan," she said.

The Center for Responsible Lending, an organization that calls for more safeguards for consumers, found in 2015 that payday loan storefronts in Ohio advertised rates of more than 600 percent annual percentage rate. Diane Standaert, director of state policy, said that since that time some storefronts now reflect rates between 300 and 400 percent for some loans. "But this is basically comparing the differences between (1) a very bad loan, and (2) another very bad loan," she said.

New research by the Center for Responsible Lending finds that today’s racial wealth gaps were supported and sustained by the federal government’s Fair Housing Administration (FHA). From the program’s inception during the 1930s, FHA perpetuated racial discrimination by making mortgage credit broadly available to white borrowers while excluding blacks and other people of color.

"It's much broader than ATVs and lawn equipment," said Kelly Tornow, from the Center for Responsible Lending.

“I can pull people off the street that may be ordained but that doesn’t mean they represent us. . . . It’s smoke and mirrors,” said the Rev. Sekinah Hamlin of the Center for Responsible Lending. “Despite what they say, we have faith traditions, and payday loans don’t align with those traditions.”

State law enforcement officials investigated and enforced the law against for-profit colleges well before the Trump administration took office, but in the absence of aggressive federal regulations, states are “continuing to step up to protect their residents,” said Lisa Stifler, the state policy deputy director at the Center for Responsible Lending.