Press Releases

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its draft licensing manual for fintech firms seeking the agency's new limited-purpose national bank charters. The draft offers detail on how the OCC will apply the licensing standards and requirements in existing regulations and policies to fintech firms applying for special national bank charters. The draft will be open for...

A new report released today by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) shows that four-year for-profit colleges in Connecticut are leaving students with lower graduation rates, higher debt loads, and high default rates. These difficulties fall especially heavily on students of color, who are disproportionately enrolled in for-profit colleges in across the state. CRL analyzed data from the U.S. Department...

Proposals Would Boost Transparency & Accountability Across Financial Sector Today, a group of congressional lawmakers, led by U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.), introduced seven bills to restrict forced arbitration and improve access to our judicial system for servicemembers, consumers, workers, and students. Across the country, fine print agreements--from financial to employment contracts--too often include arbitration clauses to strip individuals from...

Today, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) unveiled its new logo after nearly 15 years of using a green and blue chevron model. The new colors, blue, orange, and yellow and the community circle will underscore CRL’s affiliation as part of the Center for Community Self-Help (Self-Help) family, which also includes two credit unions and a nonprofit loan fund. Since...

Proposals Attacking CFPB Would Eviscerate Essential Consumer Protections This week, a group of Republican Senators, led by U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), introduced a bill to make the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) budget come from Congress, instead of allowing the CFPB to receive independent funding as intended when Congress approved its creation in 2010. Additionally, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz...

Case Granted En Banc Is Essential Step In Maintaining Key Consumer Protections Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) petition to hear PHH Corporation vs. CFPB en banc. This order means that the CFPB can continue to operate as Congress intended during the pendency of the en banc proceeding, and...

The United States Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General by a partisan vote of 52-47 this week. On Tuesday evening, Senate Republicans used a procedural maneuver to prevent Senator Elizabeth Warren from reading from the floor of the chamber a 1986 letter from Mrs. Coretta Scott King, who opposed Sessions in his bid for a federal judgeship. Mrs. King...

This afternoon, President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order “directing the Treasury secretary and financial regulators to come up with a plan to revise rules the Dodd-Frank law put in place.” Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Executive Vice President Debbie Goldstein released the following statement: If this Administration has not learned from the mistakes that caused the...

Today, Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) released statements following the suggestion of the National Economic Council Director that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Director Richard Cordray would be replaced. These developments threaten to leave consumers prone to the types of abusive financial practices that were rampant in the run-up to the Great Recession...

U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.) introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would repeal new rules on prepaid cards finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) last October. The rules were designed to protect low-income families, many of whom have no bank account and use prepaid cards to handle their financial transactions. CRA is a legislative tool that...