CRL in the News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (RealEstateRama) — The Senate confirmed Mark Calabria as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) –the federal regulator that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – led by acting director Joseph Otting since early January. Calabria, who has served as chief economist for Vice President Mike Pence, was nominated to head the FHFA by the Trump Administration in December 2018.

College-sponsored bank accounts ding students with millions of dollars in fees each year, according to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Education Department under President Donald Trump never published the analysis but advocacy groups recently obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request. The bureau reviewed 573 colleges across the country with marketing agreements with banks. It found that 1.3 million students attending these colleges had open and active accounts with their colleges’ account providers. Students using accounts at these schools paid more

They are pricey, pesky and often designed to catch you off guard when you can least afford them. Checking and savings account fees can add to the cost of closing a bank account or force a low account balance into the negatives. So what bank fees should you be looking out for? And how can you avoid them if your bank levies these fees? Here are seven annoying bank fees and how to avoid them.

Stephen Marley comes from music royalty. Sean Garrett has written and produced smash hits for Beyoncé, Usher and Ciara. Even so, when they and hundreds of lesser-known names in the world of hip-hop and rap needed cash, one Wall Street figure emerged as an unlikely source behind the financing: hedge-fund titan Jamie Dinan. In a few short years, Sound Royalties, a West Palm Beach firm started within a unit of Dinan’s York Capital Management, has become ubiquitous in the music industry. Proudly billing itself as “artist friendly,” it offers cash advances to musicians, who often have to tide

As the Brookings report authors — Robin Howarth and Lisa Stifler of the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending — note, a 1998 change to the Higher Education Act opened the door to colleges enrolling more than half of their students in online programs. Seeking cost-efficiency, scale and the chance to reach more adult students, for-profits were early adopters. Today for-profits are still orienting more and more online, but they are not alone. Public and private nonprofit universities have joined the field. Arizona State and Southern New Hampshire universities are already established online

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Debt is a major challenge for some Washington families, and measures moving through the Legislature could give them a bit of relief. House Bill 1602 would cap the interest rate companies can charge on consumer debt collection after winning a court judgment at 9 percent. The current rate is 12 percent – the highest in the nation. The bill would also increase consumer protections when wages are garnished.

This report addresses the trend of for-profit colleges going exclusively online or contracting with non-profit (mostly public) colleges to run their online programs. Using results from focus groups of for-profit student borrowers, Robin Howarth and Lisa Stifler explore the risks that this rapid shift entails for students already vulnerable to poor outcomes. The Department of Education is seeking to weaken accountability for distance education (online) providers that enroll students across wide geographies. This approach will increase risks for students and the federal student loan program. The

We all have heard the numbers about escalating student loan debt across the country. Maine is no exception. Residents of our state carry more than $6 billion in education debt. Excessive student debt takes money out of Maine’s economy. MECEP’s analysis indicates that education debt held by Mainers could support 6,000 jobs and three-quarters of a billion dollars in consumer spending if it were circulating through Maine’s economy instead of being sent to federal lenders and loan servicers. Research by MECEP shows the $6 billion in student debt also keeps Mainers from buying homes and saving for

The question of who is the worst member of President Trump’s administration could keep a dinner party entertained for hours. Is it Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the multimillionaire who felt impelled to lie about being a billionaire? Former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and schnorrer extraordinaire Scott Pruitt? Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who, when he was a U.S. attorney, let billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein off with a mere slap on the wrist? Or could it be acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who has gone from turning the Consumer Financial

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (RealEstateRama) — Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) President Mike Calhoun testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for a hearing on “Chairman’s Housing Reform Outline: Part 2.” In his testimony, Calhoun discussed that any reform of the U.S. housing system must ensure access to safe and affordable mortgage loans for all creditworthy borrowers, including low-income borrowers and borrowers of color. Furthermore, any proposed legislation should provide equal treatment for small lenders, including community banks and credit unions