CRL in the News

Mike Calhoun, the president of the Center for Responsible Lending, told BuzzFeed News that the record levels of credit card debt shows that financial regulations introduced after the 2008 crisis did not kill the market for consumer lending, as the industry and some government officials believed they would.

You may have finally found the perfect automobile. It is the make and model you want, with the right options, and even the right color. Now comes closing the deal on it. If you’re not flush with cash—in other words, you seek a loan—it’s important to know what you’re up against.

On March 28, the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing that examined recent trends in lending and how the current regulatory climate impacts the availability of credit for consumers and small businesses.

Dismantling lending regulations and weakening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would deal a blow to the entire economy, according to Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending.

By attacking vacant, blighted and “zombie” properties, officials report land banks can stave off the effects of those properties on neighbors. In 2009, the Center for Responsible Lending projected that homeowners living near a foreclosed property, on average, would lose $7,200 in property value, and projected a four-year increase in losses to $20,300 per household.

Last year, the CFPB proposed the first comprehensive federal rules to deal with these debt traps that cost consumers $8 billion per year in fees. These rules would require lenders to verify whether borrowers would truly be able to pay back a loan, restrict the ability of balances to spiral out of control, and make it more difficult for lenders...

Most students who enroll in for-profit colleges in Connecticut don't graduate, and those who do are deeper in debt, according to the Center for Responsible Lending The group's report says only 35 percent of students graduate from for-profit colleges in the state, compared to more than half of students at public colleges and two-thirds in private, not-for-profit schools.

Lisa Stifler, subdirectora del centro de política estatal, indicó que aquellos que se gradúan de las universidades con fines de lucro terminan con niveles sustancialmente más altos de deuda.

Chris Kukla with the Center for Responsible Lending said there are safety concerns. “You’re on your way to pick your kids up, you stop at the store and suddenly you can’t start your car and your kids are left alone at a school,” Kukla said. “Or there are certainly stories of families where the mom was trying to get a...

“Lenders were abusing the system to siphon money out of service members’ paychecks,” says Christopher Kukla, an executive vice president at the Center for Responsible Lending who oversees its auto lending work. The CFPB worked with the Defense Department to create new protections in its program, he says. “It’s led to really significant reform.”