Research & Policy

CRL and other allied organizations are pleased to submit the following comments on payday lending abuses in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's request after its January field hearing in Birmingham, Alabama. CRL and the other organizations appreciate the chance to comment on the debt trap inherent to payday lending, and are grateful for the supervisory guidance on payday...

Attorney General Kamala Harris is sponsoring a package of bills (the Homeowner Bill of Rights) designed to mitigate the foreclosure crisis and provide Californians with greater protections in the foreclosure process.

Download the Full Report (PDF) >> Read our Comments to the FTC on Yo-Yo Scams (PDF) >> View a Brief Presentation on the Report (Powerpoint)>&gt Learn How Yo-Yo Scams Work >> How Dealers Rig the Game Watch this video to learn more about yo-yo scams and the latest paper. Throughout 2011, the Federal Trade Commission convened a series of roundtables...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act makes unfair and deceptive acts and practices (UDAP) unlawful and empowers and directs the FTC to prevent such acts and practices through rule-making and enforcement. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ("Dodd-Frank") provided clear FTC jurisdiction over most auto dealers, particularly when entering into finance transactions with consumers, while freeing the...

Forty-nine state attorneys generals and two government agencies have reached a $25 billion agreement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers to address mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure abuses. Here we provide a quick-reference summary of the terms of this agreement. Background and additional resources

The NCLC/CFA 2012 Refund Anticipation Loan Report Read the report >> Chi Chi Wu, National Consumer Law Center Contributing author: Jean Ann Fox, Consumer Federation of America ? Executive Summary Refund anticipation loans (RALs) are one to two week loans made by banks, facilitated by tax preparers, and secured by the taxpayer's expected tax refund. RALs can carry triple digit...

Some 250 advocates urged four federal regulators to end the predatory practice of bank payday lending on February 22, 2012. The CFPB, OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve Board can and should stop Wells Fargo, US Bank, Fifth Third Bank and Regions Bank from trapping their customers in long-term debt at 400% annual interest. Maps, video, slides and the latest news...

Some 250 advocates urged four federal regulators to end the predatory practice of bank payday lending on February 22, 2012. The CFPB, OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve Board can and should stop Wells Fargo, US Bank, Fifth Third Bank and Regions Bank from trapping their customers in long-term debt at 400% annual interest. The Honorable Ben S. Bernanke Chairman Board...

"Rampant, Pervasive Fraud" Maryland's AG, Doug Gansler, gives a quick overview of the national mortgage settlement, noting that "this is just a down payment by the national banks," not the end of the story. As foreclosures mounted in recent years, the mortgage servicing industry often responded with illegal shortcuts, illegal fees and incompetent management. The situation became so bad that...

Using tax filing data, this fact sheet from the Urban Institute demonstrates dramatic behavioral differences among the banked and unbanked in their use of two at-times costly tax-time financial products, refund anticipation checks (RACs) and refund anticipation loans (RALs). Banked tax filers are much more likely to avoid such products. Even for those who are otherwise similar in income and...

The Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumer Law Center, and on behalf of its low-income clients the National Council of La Raza have filed the following comments to the FTC in regards to the current state of auto lending and the recent motor...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the nation's first federal agency to focus solely on consumer financial issues, reached an important milestone. The agency's first report to Congress was delivered to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on January 31 by its recently-appointed Director, Richard Cordray. Speaking to the committee, Cordray said in part, "We plan to use all of the...

A few provisions of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act that President Obama signed into law May 2009 took effect immediately, and a few didn't take effect until August of that year. But most of the provisions took effect February 22, 2010. While these new rules are a significant improvement from the status quo that pervaded credit card...

As federal regulators consider setting down-payment standards on new mortgages, this research shows such rules could push 60% of creditworthy borrowers into high-cost loans or out of the market altogether. A proposal by regulators to define a high-quality mortgage as one with at least a 10% or 20% down payment would hobble a healthy segment of the housing market. While...

FHFA has the mandate and the opportunity to improve mortgage servicing practices. CRL recommends incentives to encourage better service by loan servicers and to promote more timely and effective loss mitigation, free of abusive and unfair practices.

This case involves borrowers who purchased a vehicle through a dealership in California. The financial institution in question, Wachovia, did not make the loans, but later purchased the installment contracts from the dealer. When the borrower fell behind on their payments, Wachovia repossessed the cars without properly following California law. California allows self-help repossession, but has strict rules regarding consumers'...

Short-term loan carries 365%-plus APR At least four large banks are making payday loans directly to their customers, and more plan to do so. Bank payday loans trap borrowers in debt, like the street corner payday loans that strip $4.5 billion per year from Americans. Bank payday loans often send borrowers into financial devastation. Bank payday lending circumvents state consumer...

Five years into the foreclosure crisis, borrowers across the country are still struggling with their mortgage payments, and are seeking out the help of housing counselors to help them manage their finances and guide them through the loan modification process. Between 2008 and 2011, the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program assisted nearly 1.2 million homeowners with foreclosure counseling, and provided...

On November 17, 2011, Center for Responsible Lending published new research that shows that the nation is not even halfway through the foreclosure crisis. Lost Ground, 2011: Disparities in Mortgage Lending and Foreclosures finds that: (1) foreclosure rates are closely tied to harmful loan terms, and (2) the majority of foreclosures have been experienced by white households, though African-American and...

Read our report -- Lost Ground, 2011: Disparities in Mortgage Lending and Foreclosures Completed Foreclosures and Serious Delinquencies (2004 – 2008 mortgage originations) STATES By borrower race & ethnicity By borrower income By neighborhood income By neighborhood minority concentration METROPOLITAN AREAS By borrower race & ethnicity By borrower income By neighborhood income By neighborhood minority concentration

"Lost Ground, 2011" is based on an analysis of 27 million mortgages made over a five-year period. Here are our top-line findings: The nation is not even halfway through the foreclosure crisis. 6.4 percent of mortgages made between 2004 and 2008 have ended in foreclosure, and an additional 8.3 percent are at immediate, serious risk. Foreclosure patterns are strongly linked...

CRL also filed an amicus brief to the New Jersey Supreme Court, advocating for strict compliance with New Jersey's Fair Foreclosure Act and the federal Truth in Lending Act's intentional reordering of the common law rescission process to effectuate Congress's intent that rescission under TILA be a practical tool to save homes from foreclosure. Both statutes play a critical role...

The Center for Responsible Lending commented on Capital One's proposed acquisistion of ING Bank at a public meeting held by Federal Reserve on September 20, 2011. Summary CRL has done extensive research and policy work addressing checking account overdraft practices that cause significant harm to bank customers. We are concerned that Capital One's current overdraft practices are out of step...

As state Attorneys General wrap up their robo-signing investigation, CRL joins Americans for Financial Reform in urging AGs to produce a strong settlement for homeowners: one that prevents unnecessary foreclosures and keeps the door open for more legal remedies in the future.

HB 484 transfers the authority of the State Home Foreclosure Prevention Project (SHFPP), a very important program for NC homeowners at risk of foreclosure, from the NC Commissioner of Banks (NCCOB) to the NC Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA). Since the NCHFA was already administering a number of foreclosure prevention programs, most notably the NC Foreclosure Prevention Fund, this new law...