CRL in the News
Through enactment of Dodd-Frank, Congress wisely consolidated consumer protection within the CFPB and shielded it from the finance lobby’s influence over annual congressional appropriations. These features are essential for the consumer bureau to do its job. Unless Congress is nostalgic for rampant predatory lending, it should not defang this consumer watchdog absent a Supreme Court decision requiring such an unprecedented result.
There are numerous reasons why consumers do not respond, said Whitney Barkley-Denney, the deputy director of state policy at the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit policy firm in Durham, N.C.
“Some people don’t show up because they don’t ever get notified,” she said. “But even if you do get the proper paperwork, it’s an intimidating process to go through.”
Marisabel Torres, speaking on behalf of the Center for Responsible Lending said, “When the borrower’s BNPL loan is linked to a bank account that lacks sufficient funds for payment, the BNPL lender’s payment attempts will typically trigger highly punitive non-sufficient funds [NSF] and/or overdraft fees … These fees in turn are highly associated with closed bank accounts and exclusion from the financial system. Or, the borrower may have sufficient funds for the BNPL payment but then be left without sufficient funds for other essential living expenses or debts.
The Center for Responsible Lending released a report this year that showed economic gaps and underfunding at HBCU’s push students to take on a disproportionate amount of debt. This keeps graduates from adding to their net worth later in life, the report said.
This list honors the corporate lobbyists, hired guns, association leaders and grassroots activists who leveraged their expertise and connections to make a difference in the nation’s capital this year. Grassroots advocates won hard-fought battles to secure some of this year’s most significant bipartisan measures, including the first gun violence bill in decades and legislation to expand benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits.
“This poll reveals Americans of all ideological stripes support the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. People want the CFPB to stop financial discrimination and other unfair practices. Any move to defang this consumer watchdog would be extremely unpopular,” said Charla Rios, deputy director of research at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).