Press Releases

DURHAM, NC -- New research by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) finds that predatory mortgage lending is a significant problem in rural America that hinders borrowers from taking advantage of improving credit or interest rate declines. Perceived as an urban problem by many, certain abusive lending practices are more prevalent in rural areas than in cities. Rural borrowers are...

The Center for Responsible Lending today commended North Carolina Commissioner of Banks Joseph A. Smith, Jr. and Attorney General Roy Cooper for launching investigations into whether payday lender Advance America is violating the state's usury laws. The Commissioner of Banks today issued a subpoena for Advance America President William M. Webster, IV or appropriate employees of the company to appear...

DURHAM, NC (June 16, 2004) -- Buying a home is the single largest purchase most Americans will make. Homeownership is also the primary way that families accumulate wealth and a symbol of financial success for many. June has been designated National Homeownership Month to celebrate this important achievement in the lives of American families and to encourage others to join...

View this document (PDF) The Center for Responsible Lending believes that binding arbitration clauses are incompatible with our nation's public policy in favor of an open and fair path to homeownership. BMA clauses can serve to protect unscrupulous lenders from the scrutiny of courts while they engage in activities that directly undermine homeownership and drain hard-earned assets from working families...

Listen to payday lending telenews event (RealAudio) Durham, NC -- Unwary U.S. borrowers who rely upon high-interest payday lending for quick cash are caught in a "debt trap" that costs them $3.4 billion each year, according to a report by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). Entitled " Quantifying the Economic Cost of Predatory Payday Lending," the new CRL study...

WASHINGTON, DC, December 9, 2003 -- Consumer, civil rights and lending groups today hailed Freddie Mac's recent decision to ban mandatory arbitration clauses from all subprime loans it purchases. The groups include AARP, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), NAACP, Consumer Federation of America (CFA), National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), National Community Reinvestment Coalition...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- State predatory lending laws, including North Carolina's first-of-its-kind legislation targeting abusive home mortgage terms, are working to protect consumers while not drying up the availability of credit to low-income borrowers, according to testimony delivered to Congress today by Self-Help Credit Union Senior Vice President George Brown, who also is spokesperson of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL)...

DURHAM, NC -- Siding with groups of state officials such as the Conference of State Banking Supervisors, National Association of Attorneys General, and National Governors Association, a diverse group of leading civil rights and consumer organizations called on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today to withdraw its controversial proposal to preempt application of state anti-predatory lending...

Listen to UNC study telenews event (RealAudio) Download the original 2003 report (PDF) CHAPEL HILL, NC -- The nation's first anti-predatory lending law -- the North Carolina statewide measure that took effect nearly three years ago on July 1, 2000 -- has significantly reduced harmful refinance loans containing abusive terms while not limiting access to subprime credit for homebuyers and...

DURHAM, NC. -- Calling fee-based overdraft programs now being used by 1,000 banks and other financial institutions "a hidden and unfair tax on the most vulnerable depositors," 54 national advocacy groups -- including the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Consumer Law Center and ACORN -- are calling on the Federal Reserve Board to implement minimum...