Press Releases

National consumer protection organizations applauded President Obama's proposal to create a new federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency to ensure the safety, fairness and sustainability of credit. The agency would have broad powers to ensure that credit and payment products do not have predatory or deceptive features that can harm consumers or lock them into unaffordable loans. "The international economic crisis...

Consumers have the deck stacked against them when they are forced into mandatory arbitration by their credit card issuer or other financial services provider, an analysis by the Center for Responsible Lending confirms. Many consumers don't even know that the contracts they sign for most credit cards, auto loans and other small loan products come with hidden clauses that require...

Religious, civil rights and consumer groups today briefed congressional lawmakers and staff on why all families should be covered by the 36 percent rate cap on consumer loans that already protects military families. Over 70 percent of Americans support a cap of 36 percent or less. "The issue of payday loans is an economic justice issue, and it is a...

A dismal milestone was reached over the weekend: One million new foreclosures have been filed so far in 2009, according to estimates by the Center for Responsible Lending. This comes on the heels of a new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, the first quarter 2009 National Delinquency Survey, showing that 12% of all mortgages are now delinquent—the highest level...

We applaud President Obama and congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for their leadership in swiftly enacting new law to clean up abusive credit card industry practices. The overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in Congress to pass the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights was a vote on the side of hardworking American families. Today, with the President's signing the bill...

We applaud President Obama for reaffirming the important role of state law in protecting consumers. To that end, we call on federal banking regulators to withdraw their misguided and harmful preemption policy so that state regulators can once again protect their residents from unfair and deceptive financial products. We needn't look further than the current mortgage meltdown for evidence that...

"We commend the leadership of Senator Dodd and Senator Shelby, the Senate Banking Committee and the Senators whose votes ensured passage of H.R. 627, the Credit CARD Act. This bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support, will provide consumers with significant protections from industry practices that extract billions of dollars in unfair fees and interest from cardholders every year. "We applaud...

We applaud President Obama for his leadership in pushing for reforms of credit card industry practices that unfairly strip billions of dollars from America's families each year. As organizations representing consumers, civil rights groups, small businesses and labor, we urge swift passage of the Credit CARD Act, a bill championed by Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Richard Shelby that enjoys...

We took a quick sampling of credit card issuers' recent activities to see how they have responded to the Federal Reserve rule changes that were announced in December 2008 but won't take effect until July 2010. We found the top eight issuers, who account for 80 percent of credit card balances, are raising interest rates on a larger portion of...

"We commend the House of Representatives and the House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, along with lead sponsors, Reps. Mel Watt and Brad Miller, on the passage of H.R. 1728, the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act. At its core, this legislation provides that mortgage lenders may only make mortgages that a consumer can afford to repay. While that...