CRL in the News

Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending released a survey Tuesday showing that roughly 80 percent of voters polled are concerned about the Trump administration's impact on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending will release survey results Tuesday showing that an overwhelming majority of Americans — at least 80% — are concerned about the Trump administration’s recent efforts to curb oversight of banks and payday lenders, and the possible shutdown of a database of consumer complaints.

“There’s a huge amount of public support for the rule and no congressional action or appetite for repealing the rule,” said Scott Astrada, director of federal advocacy for the Center for Responsible Lending.

"It's a comprehensive package that seeks to make college more affordable, more accessible, and hold institutions more accountable for the results that they achieve,” explains Ashley Harrington, a special assistant to the president of the Center for Responsible Lending. “And so we think that it's a big, strong step in the right direction."

Today, the Center for Responsible Lending released a new report examining the repayment experiences of borrowers of longer-term payday loans in Colorado. The report is based on focus groups that were conducted in four Colorado cities in September 2017. The full report is worth the read, but here are the key takeaways...

These loans tend to carry much higher APRs than bank or credit union loans, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending. They also generally come with high upfront fees and require borrowers to put down what the center calls "a disproportionate percentage of the car's actual value."

The American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Center for Responsible Lending and Young Invincibles (which advocates for economic opportunity for young adults) all say this bill provides a practical solution to the student debt crisis and would increase access to college for low-income students.

“Mulvaney’s decision to halt the CFPB from moving forward on addressing abusive overdraft fee practices will severely impact poor families and communities of color,” said Rebecca Borne, Senior Policy Counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending in response.

"It puts so much responsibility on students and students alone," said Ashley Harrington, a lawyer at the Center for Responsible Lending, "and on no other piece of this puzzle."

The Black unemployment rate is almost double the 3.5 percent unemployment rate for whites and 4.6 percent for Hispanics. About eight percent of African-American homeowners lost their properties to foreclosure from 2007 to 2009, according to estimates from the Center for Responsible Lending. Also, only 43 percent of Black people owned homes in 2017, according to an annual report from...