CRL in the News

In a recent op-ed, Consumer Bankers Association President Richard Hunt asserts that bank payday loans were a service to customers and argues that they should be restarted. The facts, though, show that while these loans produced huge fees for banks, they were a usurious debt trap for bank customers. Just a few years ago, banks were making 200%-plus APR payday...

When political candidates spend their time begging for cash from wealthy interests and legislating to prioritize private profits over the public good, regular people lose out. The corporations and superrich donors that dominate our elections have an outsized influence over who wins, what gets discussed in campaigns and what legislative ideas receive serious consideration. The sweeping legislative package known as...

NASHVILLE, TN – Single-family homes used to line the 700 block of 26 th Ave N. But several lots are now empty, the modest houses gone, and the families who lived in them have moved away. Tonya Wade-Moody still lives in one of the remaining homes. And she is plenty angry. “Where are the affordable homes? All of these people...

A federal rule that would have provided an extra level of consumer protection against payday lending practices has been proposed to be rescinded on the basis that it would reduce access to short-term loans for consumers. Idaho cities in the past have attempted to protect citizens from payday loans that often trap consumers with drastically high interest rates. Idahoans paid...

Aberdeen, Washington, is a far Northwest outpost of JPMorgan Chase & Co., with one lonely branch perched near the Pacific, 2,900 miles from Wall Street. Now the bank is planning to depart the rainy timber town that gave the world Kurt Cobain. The next-closest Chase branch is 40 miles away. At the same time, JPMorgan plans to open 70 branches...

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced legislation last week that would end the practice of forced arbitration and allow consumers to file class action suits against financial companies. The Arbitration Fairness for Consumers Act would also ensure that financial crimes cannot be hidden from the public in a private and opaque process.

Asha Clark doesn’t have any savings. She works full time. She earns a minimum wage, making phone calls as a customer service representative. In Las Vegas where she lives, that’s $8.25 an hour. Sometimes, her paycheck isn’t enough to cover all her bills. Those are times that Clark would take out a payday loan. In Nevada, there are more payday...

Many Atlanta-area students taking courses at a for-profit university are worried about its future because the school’s parent company is in financial trouble and they say officials are sharing scant information about the situation. Those concerns grew after federal education officials announced Wednesday they are giving the school, Argosy University, two weeks to show why it should continue to participate...

If you buy a new or used car, and a few days later the dealer tells you there’s been a problem with your financing, alarm bells should go off. You might be the victim of a “yo-yo” financing scam — so called because you’re pulled back into the dealership to renegotiate the deal at a higher interest rate and worse...

In 2004, the pinnacle of homeownership in the United States, nearly half of all African American families owned a home, according to census data. The record figure, fueled by the housing boom of the early 2000s, was still one-third less than housing rates for whites. But it was widely viewed as a milestone for a minority group that spent generations...