Press Releases

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Predatory payday lenders will continue to gouge soldiers, sailors and aviators in California with more than 400 percent interest on loans thanks to the payday-lending industry's intense lobbying of state legislators. High-ranking Navy and Marine officers, consumer groups and their allies in the legislature tried to ban this sort of predatory lending, but it looks like they...

A Defense Department study sent to Congress yesterday shows that Congress must stop predatory lenders from preying on our soldiers, sailors and aviators, said President Michael Calhoun of the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending. The Pentagon report says payday lenders should charge no more than 36 percent annual percentage rates on their loans to service members, the same cap many...

More than 70 consumer and veterans groups are calling on Congress to enact an amendment by Sen. Jim Talent (R-Missouri) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) to protect military families from payday lenders, who trap borrowers in a vicious cycle of debt at interest rates of more than 400 percent a year. This predatory business doesn't just ravage service members and...

Martin Eakes, CEO of the Center for Community Self-Help, named Michael D. Calhoun president of the Center for Responsible Lending. Calhoun has lobbied and litigated for poor people and their issues, especially predatory lending, for more than 30 years. Calhoun, formerly general counsel, had been the center's lead lobbyist in Washington and state capitals for years. His acceptance of the...

TITLE SOURCE DATE Separate and Unequal Justice: The Case Against Binding Mandatory Arbitration for Homebuyers Center for Responsible Lending 02/24/05 -

Most people assume they can take their grievances to court if a lender violates the law. Unfortunately, many borrowers are denied that option through "binding mandatory arbitration" (BMA), a common clause in loan contracts. Barred from bringing claims to court, victims of abusive lending practices frequently find that their loan contracts require them to go through arbitration: proceedings conducted in...

African-Americans and Latinos, government figures show, get high-interest sub-prime mortgages far more often than whites. Now researchers at the Center for Responsible Lending find those disparities persist even when the borrowers have the same qualifications as whites. Lenders say they charge more because African-Americans and Latinos tend to have shakier credit histories, which makes lending to them riskier. But that...

African-Americans and Latinos, government figures show, get high-interest sub-prime mortgages far more often than whites. Now researchers at the Center for Responsible Lending find those disparities persist even when the borrowers have the same qualifications as whites. Lenders say they charge more because African-Americans and Latinos tend to have shakier credit histories, which makes lending to them riskier. But that...

Louisianans will need to keep an eye on their wallets and their cars if their state legislators pass a bill to let lenders charge 300 percent annual percentage rate when people put up their cars as collateral for a loan. What's more, the bills would make it all too easy for these lenders, who thrive on trapping people in debt...

A nationwide survey shows that low-income people, single people, and many people of color are increasingly turning to borrowing money from financial institutions by over-drawing their checking accounts, racking up interest rates that can exceed 1,000 percent. A telephone survey of 3,310 households done for the Center for Responsible Lending shows that a mere 16 percent of bank customers account...