Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In tonight’s State of the Union speech, President Biden is widely expected to note progress and call for additional action to address junk fees in general and high-cost overdraft fees in particular. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently proposed an overdraft rule that would apply to the nation’s largest banks and credit unions. The CFPB estimates...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of the White House’s State of the Union push for policies to lower the cost of housing, President Biden today called for Congress to pass legislation to provide up to $25,000 in downpayment assistance to first-time homebuyers whose parents don’t own homes. The legislation would help an estimated 400,000 families become homeowners. The proposal mirrors...

Washington, DC – Martin Eakes, chief executive officer of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), today announced that Laura Arce has joined the board of directors of the nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy advocacy organization that works to promote financial fairness and economic opportunity for all, end predatory lending, and close the racial wealth gap. Ms. Arce is senior vice...

Washington, D.C. — Enrolling in the Department of Education’s latest income-driven repayment plan, Saving on A Valuable Education (SAVE), could revive the homeownership dreams of millions of low- and moderate-income student loan borrowers, according to a joint report released today by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and California Policy Lab. The reduction of monthly debt payments due to SAVE...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a proposed rule to require the nation’s largest banks and credit unions to comply with consumer credit protections for their overdraft programs. “The CFPB’s proposal would rein in a junk fee that has gouged financially vulnerable families for far too long,” said Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate today failed to override the presidential veto of S.J.Res. 32, a Republican-led Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) implementation of Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Sec. 1071 is a sunshine provision requiring large lenders to collect and report demographic data on small business loans. While Section...

Bill to establish interest rate cap with wide bipartisan popularity among voters WASHINGTON, D.C. – Advocates at the Center for Responsible Lending, National Consumer Law Center, Consumer Federation of America, and Americans for Financial Reform applaud U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and more than a dozen Senate cosponsors for introducing the Predatory Lending Elimination Act, which extends to veterans and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, along with Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) and additional bipartisan cosponsors, reintroduced the Close the Shadow Banking Loophole Act , a bill to require that industrial loan companies (ILCs) abide by the same rules, supervision, and consumer protections as traditional banks...

WASHINGTON – Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced its final rule targeting deceptive conduct in the sale and financing of motor vehicles, titled the “Combatting Auto Retail Scams” (CARS) Rule. After a decade of attempts to fix a broken auto marketplace, the FTC announced in July 2022 that it was pursuing an auto dealer rule aimed at ending bait...

CHICAGO – Tomorrow morning, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the appeal of a fair lending enforcement action brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) against Chicago mortgage lender Townstone Financial. The appealed decision upends 50 years of fair lending law, concluding that lenders are free to discourage minority consumers from seeking credit without...