CRL in the News
LUDINGTON—Four years ago, Merenda Vincent was desperate for cash.
She had an overdue car payment, along with a medical bill she couldn’t pay. Living on a monthly Social Security check of less than $1,000, she had no money in the bank.
Startups that provide early access to workers’ earned wages are jostling over key aspects of pending California legislation that would create the nation’s first-ever regulatory framework for the nascent industry.
The state Senate passed a bill 35-0 last month, but interviews with executives in the fast-growing sector revealed big disagreements about the legislation. Those disputes reflect key differences in their firms’ business models.
Bank fees have gotten way out of hand — so much so that they now account for more than a third of revenue for an industry that once made its cash almost exclusively by lending money to customers.
And the worst of the worst are overdraft fees. They’re little more than cash grabs, serving no purpose but to fatten bankers’ already bulging pockets.
It’s time lawmakers put a halt to the practice. Or, barring that, we should follow the example of Britain, which just placed limits on how much can be charged by banks for exceeding available funds.
As Orlando-area rents continue to climb, a major bank is offering a pair of home-buyer grants that could help low- and moderate-income residents make the leap to ownership.
This week the region became one of 49 national markets targeted by Bank of America for a five-year, $5 billion affordable home ownership initiative. The effort provides eligible home buyers a down-payment grant of 3 percent of the home’s purchase price — up to $10,000 — and a separate lender credit of up to $7,500 that can cover one-time fees or be used to buy down the loan’s interest rate.
Are more $38 cups of coffee on the horizon?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has opened a review of the decade-old federal “overdraft rule,” which regulates how banks charge fees when their customers spend more than what is in their checking accounts.
On Saturday mornings, locals shuffle through the ACE Cash Express at 16th and Mission in San Francisco, greeting one another in Spanish, if at all. The storefront signage — “Fast Loans Prestamos” — is unremarkable here, between pentecostal churches and stands of Tajin-salted mango.
The rate of Black homeownership in America – now at 41.1 percent, according to 2019 U. S. Census numbers – is even lower than it was when the U. S. Fair Housing Act was signed into law 51 years ago on April 11, 1968.
This means Black homeownership is 32.1 percentage points lower than that of Whites, which stands at 73.2 percent. It also means Black homeownership is 6.3 percentage points lower than that of Latino-Americans, which stands at 47.4 percent.
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau changed its tune on payday loans when the country changed presidents. The Center for Responsible Lendingnoticed.
CRL's Ezekiel Gorrocino visits with details of the current situation with payday loans.
WASHINGTON — When the Federal Housing Finance Agency opened a fair-lending monitoring office last August, there was little fanfare. But the launch of the Office of Fair Lending Oversight stood in contrast to different moves by officials elsewhere in the Trump administration.
After over a decade of stagnation, the race is finally on to release mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from government control and reshape the housing finance system.