CRL in the News

About $480 million in payday and car title loan interest fees is paid each year by Alabamians, the sixth highest annual figure in the nation, said Diane Standaert, director of state policy at the Center for Responsible Lending. Of that total, $116 million was from payday loans.

Auto title loans are very similar to payday loans in their terms, except the former uses a borrower's vehicle as collateral in the deal. According to a study from the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending, some 60% of all short-term lending shops in Ohio offered both payday and auto title loans.

As Black History Month observances continue throughout the nation, now is an apt time to revisit the unmet housing finance challenges that affect African-Americans, other consumers of color and low-income whites. While many consumers have felt an economic recovery, many others remain locked out of homeownership and the resulting opportunity to build wealth through home equity. In order to open up homeownership opportunities to those left behind, public policies must address the impact of mortgage discrimination by promoting robust mortgage lending to all creditworthy borrowers.

In a Feb. 9 BankThink article discussing a path forward for the Department of Justice’s civil rights division under President Trump, Paul Hancock claims that the Obama administration pursued too many fair-lending claims against banks and lenders, exceeding the statutory bounds of fair lending enforcement. In his view, these cases lacked adequate proof. But his op-ed overlooked clear evidence that financial institutions’ methods targeted in these actions were discriminatory, and that the regulatory approaches to address this discrimination meet current legal standards.

Both proposals would leave families vulnerable to financial abuse and risk bringing back a financial crisis, says the Center for Responsible Lending’s Policy Counsel Yana Miles. “Passing either of these bills will revert us back to an era of reckless lending behaviors that led us to the Great Recession,” she said, in a statement. “The pernicious bill to undermine CFPB’s budget will embolden payday lenders and bad actors on Wall Street to continue influencing lawmakers to halt the Bureau’s funding, leaving consumers vulnerable to predatory abuse.”

Recent research shows that a growing number of consumers aged 60 or older are struggling financially to repay student loans.

Consumer advocates and civil rights groups praised the D.C. Circuit's order. "The court’s decision to hear the petition is a step in the right direction. We need a strong and independent CFPB agency and director now more than ever,” said Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending.

A report from the Center for Responsible Lending found that people of color in California who can afford to move into expensive neighborhoods typically choose not to. Instead, they mostly still choose to live in low-income, majority-minority neighborhoods.

The financial futures of more than 12 million federal and private student loan borrowers who collectively owe approximately $300 billion is at the crux of a lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, argued last month that, "If predatory lenders succeed in undermining Director Cordray and the CFPB, we will revert back to lax financial regulations. This will signal that it is once again open season on consumers. It could also cause yet another painful economic crisis caused by big banks and predatory lending that we simply cannot afford."