CRL in the News

Student loan servicers have been continually cited for a litany of abuses. First, they neglected to inform borrowers about income-based repayment, under which borrowers pay a percentage of income over 20 or 25 years, and thereafter have the balance forgiven. “The reality is that borrowers shouldn’t be in default if servicers are doing their job,” said Whitney Barkley-Denney of the Center for Responsible Lending. But over 1 million student loan defaults occurred in 2016.

“Ten years after reckless and abusive financial industry behavior caused the Great Recession, Mr. Mulvaney is throwing sand in the gears of effective consumer protection,” said Debbie Goldstein, executive vice president at the Center for Responsible Lending.

"I think it's important for people to know if they are being contacted or harassed by debt collectors that they have rights," said Diane Standaert. "People shouldn't be ashamed of dealing with the problem and seeking help because if something like this (in debt collection) isn't dealt with quickly it can balloon into much bigger problems down the line." Standaert says debt collection is "something that is affecting people throughout the state of Georgia." She says people should know they're not alone and advises that if you think a debt collector is violating the law that you should contact an

But Scott Astrada, a lobbyist for the Center for Responsible Lending – a non-profit advocacy group that participated in the talks that led to the report – said that could provide an incentive for banks to behave badly. “If I’m not doing my job right, but if I can do it in more areas, expanding a job not being well done, doesn’t make it a better job,” Astrada said.

Mulvaney also advises that Congress create an independent inspector general dedicated to overseeing the CFPB. Debbie Goldstein of the Center for Responsible Lending, a financial services watchdog group, calls the suggestion “a red herring” given that the CFPB is already overseen by an inspector general that also monitors the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

A recent study by the Center for Responsible Lending finds nationally, for-profit colleges leave students with higher levels of debt and lower graduation rates, and often with no degree and no improvement in their job-outlook. Whitney Barkley Denney with the Center joined us in studio year to talk about their research and the need for greater state and federal protections to prevent predatory for-profit colleges from taking advantage of low-income students.

“The consumer bureau’s rule would help free people from this suffocating debt trap, and its efforts are supported [by] people all across this country including veterans’ groups, faith leaders, civil rights organizations, consumer advocates, and many more,” Center for Responsible Lending Federal advocacy director Scott Astrada said in opposing Graham’s resolution. “Congress should stop defending the payday lenders and reject this misguided resolution.”

But opponents of the rollback say it will hurt consumers and increase risk, given that those banks won’t have as much oversight. “There is no doubt that if passed into law, this bill would encourage the finance industry to engage in the types of reckless lending that pulled Americans into a Great Recession,” said Yana Miles, the senior legislative counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit based in Durham, N.C. ... The bill would exempt 85% of the mortgage industry from these reporting requirements, said Scott Astrada, the director of federal advocacy at the Center for

Graciela Aponte-Diaz, California policy director for the advocacy group Center for Responsible Lending, said she is glad to see the Department of Business Oversight going after lenders for steering customers into large, high-cost loans, but also noted that the group would like to see higher refunds going to customers. "That's money that should have gone to pay their rent and other expenses," she said.

"This opens up a window for the return of some of the reckless financial practices that caused the crisis," said Yana Miles, senior legislative counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending. Part of the problem with the mortgage crisis, however, was that some lenders sold mortgages with little or no effort to ensure the borrower could actually afford the loan. And once that loan was resold on the secondary market to investors, the originator no longer retained the risk.