Press Releases

Governor Moore to sign bill into law, restoring some protections and banning “tips” Annapolis, Md. — Maryland Governor Wes Moore this morning will sign legislation (SB 94) that re-establishes some of the vital consumer protections that were lost last year when the legislature passed a bill (HB 1294) that exempted app-based payday lenders from the state’s small dollar lending law...

Civil Rights and Consumer Groups Warn Approval of Merger Would Harm Communities of Color Washington, DC — In a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Powell, advocates raised the alarm regarding predatory lending practices targeting communities of color. The Center for Responsible Lending, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Legal Defense Fund, NAACP, and National Consumer Law Center urged the...

Washington, DC - The Department of Justice this week announced it indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on fraud and money laundering charges for its work to expose neo-Nazi and extremist hate groups. In response, Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) issued the following statement: The indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center for its...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, 215 civil rights, small business, farm, community, consumer, and other organizations from across the country sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee urging them to oppose legislation that would weaken or further delay the implementation of the small business and farm loan fair lending data collection for another decade. Section 1071 of the 2010...

Ahead of key committee hearing, Dolores Huerta voices her support for Assembly Bill 2558, to protect Californians from payday loan debt cycle that drains Californians of hundreds of millions of dollars every year Bill supporters released a new video today. Click here to watch. Sacramento, Calif. — At a time when many Californians are struggling with the rising prices of...

Washington, D.C. – Russel Vought, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), recently submitted a request for a dramatically lower level of funding and a separate request to bypass a DC Circuit Court stay pending appeal, two steps that would allow the watchdog agency to reduce its workforce by 70 percent, significantly reducing oversight of financial firms and...

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Education (ED) yesterday announced the Federal Student Assistance Partnership, which will begin transferring administration of the federal student loan system to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In response, Nadine Chabrier, senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), issued the following statement: This unlawful move is the latest step in...

Washington, DC – The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) recently filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief with National Consumer Law Center in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to support Sergeant Terrance Moss’s lawsuit against lender Cleo AI Inc. on behalf of himself and similarly situated active-duty military personnel and their dependents seeking to hold Cleo accountable for...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit directed a lower court to enter a settlement that would dismantle the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan, an affordable student loan program designed to keep payments manageable and prevent balances from growing due to unpaid interest. The decision marks a sharp reversal from earlier...

Portland, OR — Today, the Oregon Senate passed House Bill 4116, which stops online lenders from exploiting a loophole in federal law to charge consumer loan interest rates above Oregon's 36% cap through “rent-a-bank” schemes. The bill now moves to Governor Tina Kotek's desk to be signed into law. “Predatory ‘rent-a-bank’ loans have high rates of interest, defaults, and repeat...