CRL in the News

At its heart, the new Trump administration plan for the home loan market aims to change the rules for the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two companies are the bedrock foundation for home mortgages in the U.S. The government created them decades ago to provide a federally backed guarantee on loans to ensure that money would always be available for responsible, qualified homebuyers to get mortgages. They later became largely private companies but have been under government control since the financial crisis.

Anyone who struggles with the rising costs of living knows all too well how hard it is to try stretching dollars when there’s more month than money in the household. Predatory lending, like payday and car-title loans, worsen financial stress with triple-digit interest rates that deepen the debt owed with each renewal. The irony is that many payday loan borrowers who needed just a few hundred dollars wind up owing thousands. And any loan whose accrued interest exceeds the principal borrowed is truly predatory.

The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a long-awaited plan to end federal control of two mortgage giants that had been bailed out by taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis and return them to the private sector.

Whatever happened to the American dream of owning a home and giving your children a better life than you experienced as a child? Is this “dream” being deferred or denied? In 2019, these questions are as timely as they are timeless. Beyond rising housing costs for would-be buyers and renters alike, serious doubts are emerging about the nation’s commitment to the letter and spirit of fair housing laws, related enforcement, and regulations supporting both.

After some two years of deliberation, the U.S. Department of Education has released final rules meant to protect students from colleges that close or defraud them. The “borrower defense to repayment” rule allows students to have their federal student loans discharged in cases where they were given false or misleading information, for example. The closed school discharge gives some students the option of having their loans forgiven if a college closes suddenly. The new rules, which go into effect in July, will replace a 2016 regulation issued under former President Barack Obama, and will save

Consumer advocates and lenders are joining forces to try to revamp or eliminate a key part of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's "qualified mortgage" rule establishing underwriting standards for most of the housing market. Lenders fear the market will take a major hit under an agency plan released last month that would end an exception to QM given to loans bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Under current rules, the CFPB requires lenders to verify a borrower's ability to repay a loan by giving protections to QM loans with certain features such as a 43% debt-to-income ratio. But that

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, once one of the most aggressive regulators of education loan companies, is signaling a retreat from oversight of federal student loans by limiting the duties of its new ombudsman. On Friday, the bureau announced the appointment of Robert G. Cameron as its ombudsman for private education loans, charged with receiving, reviewing and resolving borrower complaints. But those responsibilities previously extended to federal student loans as well.

Something very important, affecting millions of consumers, won’t happen Monday. That’s when new protections from abusive payday and car-title lenders were set to take effect, requiring the firms to make sure borrowers can pay back their obligations in a reasonable amount of time and don’t become mired in debt . However, the Trump administration is delaying this perfectly reasonable safeguard for another 15 months, and already has declared its intention to do away with the rules entirely amid concern they’re too troublesome for lenders.

This week, the Center for Responsible Lending and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) released a report finding that student loan debt is unsustainable for many student borrowers, especially borrowers of color. “ Quicksand: Borrowers Of Color & The Student Debt Crisis” offers policy recommendations for reforming the country’s broken and inefficient student loan system, close the racial wealth gap, and ensure that the system is fair to all students. The report, inspired by the $1.5 trillion-dollar student debt crisis, was released in conjunction with NAACP’s

Student loan debt is no doubt a drag on the U.S. economy, holding back how much money young consumers can spend on cars, homes and even invest in 401(k) plans or new businesses. But the debt crisis is giving an early kick start to the 2020 Democratic presidential race. One candidate after another has generated some buzz by offering up one freebie or another for tackling $1.5 trillion in student loan debt.