Press Releases
May 2, 2016
A new survey finds that Colorado voters strongly oppose the idea of raising interest rates on consumer loans. Opposition was widespread among voters across lines of race, party affiliation, and household income, but the intensity of opposition was especially strong among voters of color and those who had served in the military. Overall, 51% of voters said they would be "much more likely" to vote against a legislator who voted to increase interest rates. That number rose to 58% of military service-members or veterans, and 62% of non-whites.
At issue are consumer loans that typically range...
April 20, 2016
Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a new report that proves how high-cost fees on small-dollar loan create rather than resolve financial challenges for borrowers.
An 18-month analysis of loans made by more than 330 payday lenders found that half of all borrowers—nearly 10,000—were charged an average of $185 in bank penalties, hidden costs usually in the form of overdraft or nonsufficient fund fees – or both. Repeated attempts by lenders to collect failed 70 percent of the time, but racked up substantial additional fees nonetheless. Involuntary bank account...
April 14, 2016
Center for Responsible Lending, and Groups Nationwide Tell CFPB: Beware Same Old Predators in Different Clothing
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s efforts to rein in the worst abuses of traditional, two-week payday lending schemes must not leave the door open to longer-term loan products that are similarly predatory debt-traps by design, nearly 150 consumer advocacy and civil rights groups representing thousands of Americans in more than 45 states told Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray in a hand-delivered letter.
At issue is a new rule the CFPB is...
March 24, 2016
Latinos, Blacks and Seniors Targeted for High-Cost Loans
Floridians have paid more than $2.5 billion in fees on high-cost payday loans over the last decade, according to new research by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). Further, in the most recent reported one-year period, June 2014 through May 2015, over $311 million in fees was paid on loans averaging nearly $400. These and other findings from a report entitled, Perfect Storm: Payday Lenders Harm Consumers Despite State Law refute recent claims that an existing state law has protected consumers in the Sunshine State and...
March 26, 2015
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is offering a first look at where the agency's efforts to rein in the abusive practices of payday and car title lenders are headed. At a hearing in Richmond, VA, the consumer agency will release information outlining a proposed rule and take testimony from a panel of consumer and civil rights advocates as well as industry representatives. Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, will present testimony at today's hearing.
In advance of the field hearing, Calhoun comments:
The proposal endorses the principle that payday...
September 10, 2013
Payday loans remain a damaging debt trap for millions of Americans, according to two new chapters in the Center for Responsible Lending's (CRL) State of Lending series. Payday loans carry triple-digit annualized percentage rates (APR) and strip more than $3.4 billion in fees from Americans annually.
Although payday lenders market these loans as a quick financial fix, CRL finds that 85% of loans by payday lenders go to borrowers who take out at least seven loans a year. Payday loans made by a few outlier banks also produce striking cycles of repeat loans.
These new chapters—covering...
July 9, 2009
Payday lenders create their own demand with loan terms that generate rapid re-borrowing
A full three quarters of the payday industry's loan volume is generated by borrowers who, after repaying one payday loan, must take out another before their next paycheck, new Center for Responsible Lending research shows.
The report comes on the eve of the California Senate Judiciary Committee meeting where AB 377, a highly-flawed payday lending bill, will be considered. That body will review the bill next Tues., July 14.
"It's now crystal clear that demand for payday loans is greatly exaggerated...
April 9, 2009
The federal debate on payday lending practices is heating up. A bill in the House, H.R. 1214, features measures intended to reform abusive payday lending but that have failed at the state level to curb loan flipping practices that trap the financially vulnerable. By contrast, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (S. 500) and California Rep. Jackie Speier (H.R. 1608) have introduced common-sense bills that would restore consumer protections by placing a 36 percent annual interest-rate cap on consumer loans. The Center for Responsible Lending supports S. 500 and H.R. 1608.
CRL's research shows that...
March 22, 2005
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Race Matters: The Concentration of Payday Lenders in African-American Neighborhoods in North Carolina
DURHAM, NC -- Payday lenders who trap people in triple digit-interest loans locate their stores in African-American neighborhoods in higher concentrations, according to a report by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).
African-American neighborhoods in North Carolina have three times as many payday lenders per capita as white neighborhoods, even after controlling for variables associated with the industry's purported customer base such as income and...