CRL in the News

“This bill is an inadequate response to our current economic fallout and public health crisis,” said Ashley Harrington, federal advocacy director and senior policy counsel with the Center for Responsible Lending. “More than five months have passed since Congress approved a substantive, bipartisan bill to help families stay afloat during this pandemic. Low-income families, particularly families of color who have...

While a lower required balance limit is good for some consumers, the net effect of the change will be for more of the cost of checking accounts — a free product for most customers — to be financed by the poorest customers, according to Rochelle Sparko, director of North Carolina policy at the Center for Responsible Lending. Those who will...

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) calls the rule change an “end run,” allowing lenders to overcome state regulations that limit interest rates. Critics also call it a “rent-a-bank” scheme, since the bank of record has little involvement in the actual loan, though it may loan the money to the third-party lender, which in turn loans it to the consumer...

A long list of worries weighs on us. Our health, our jobs, our children’s education. Are we in danger of foreclosure or eviction? What about racial disparities in policing and justice systems? While we are grappling with these tremendous challenges, federal regulators have something else on their minds: They are methodically easing the way for predatory lenders.

Research has shown that payday lending specifically targets Black communities. In 2005, The Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit group that promotes policies to curb predatory lending, found that African-American neighborhoods in North Carolina had three times as many payday loan stores per capita as white neighborhoods.

In the midst of the growing economic crisis, communities of color are hit disproportionately hard. These communities, particularly Black communities, are still recovering from previous disasters, like Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 foreclosure crisis. The health disparities that plague these communities coincide with the growing economic threat. Policymakers’ responses to COVID-19 must account for pervasive racial and economic inequality, and...

Many banks also enraged owners at the start by rejecting their applications if they didn’t have multiple accounts including existing loans or lines of credit. And some of the biggest banks in the country took a week or more to start accepting applications. The problems made it more difficult for minority businesses to get loans, according to a report from...

The question of whether to allow tech companies to operate banks is a rare issue in which the banking industry is allied with consumer advocacy organizations. Consumer groups that have expressed concerns about the FDIC’s proposal include the Center for Responsible Lending, the National Consumer Law Center and the Woodstock Institute.

However, one survey found that just 1 in 10 Black or Latinx small business owners received the assistance they requested under the government stimulus package. The Center for Responsible Lending also found that many Black business owners were shut out of the Paycheck Protection Program, the small business loans designed to keep employees on the payroll throughout the pandemic.

“The customer service of the student loan industry has been terrible,” said Whitney Barkley-Denny, senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending. “The recession and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic will worsen the student loan debt crisis.”