Policy & Legislation

The following provides an overview of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger’s proposal to repeal the CFPB’s 2017 rule aimed at stopping the debt trap of payday and car title loans. This document includes the Center for Responsible Lending’s (CRL’s) initial analysis of the purported rationale for the repeal. As we further consider the proposal, our reactions may...

A 30-minute documentary produced by the Center for Responsible Lending, in cooperation with South Dakotans for Responsible Lending Before November 2016, payday and car title lenders in South Dakota charged annual interest rates up to 574%, trapping people in debt and often ruining their financial lives. The state legislature wouldn't pass reform, so South Dakotans put a 36% interest rate...

In the last decade, student loan debt has exploded, directly impacting the lives of millions of Americans and leaving its mark on the entire economy. There are currently over 44 million Americans with student loan debt. With the costs of higher education continuing to rise at alarming rates and a college education becoming a requirement for more and more jobs...

In 2008, the majority of Ohio voters affirmed capping the cost of payday loans in the state to 28% interest, inclusive of all fees and other charges. Since that time, payday and car title lenders have evaded the voter-mandated cap, engaging in schemes to charge rates reaching over 300% annual percentage rate (APR), and even higher than 500% APR. In...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued the first part of a final national rule that addresses payday and car title lending. For years, civil rights organizations, consumer advocates, faith groups, working families, and others across the country have pushed for a rule to protect their communities from the payday lending debt trap. This rule represents another step forward...

One day after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) rescinded its 2013 guidance to curb predatory bank payday loans, more than 230 ( updated) faith, consumer advocate, and civil rights organizations from across the country sent a letter to America's banks urging them to pledge that they will not begin making payday loans and to oppose the...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 5, 2017 North Carolina Consumer Protections Remain Crucial As CFPB Releases New Payday Lending Rule North Carolina Usury Cap Keeps Loan Sharks at Bay Durham, NC — While consumers in states that are burdened by predatory payday lending will benefit from a final rule issued today by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), North Carolina has...

Enfoque is a Spanish information service of CRL's Latino Affairs. All the content is in Spanish; the hyperlinks throughout the document land on the original sources on our website or mostly English pages. No 1 | Vol VIII | 2017 No 1 | Vol VII | 2016 No 1 | Vol VI | 2015 No 1 | Vol V |...

During their evening news, Portland’s KBOO interviewed CRL Senior Policy Counsel Melissa Stegman on forced arbitration clauses. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently issued a rule that prohibits financial contracts from forcing consumers into arbitration and blocking consumers from pursuing a class action suit against the company. Powerful Members of Congress are fast-tracking legislation to repeal the rule – which...

On March 26, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offered a first look at proposals under consideration to curb the payday loan debt trap. The consumer agency released information outlining their deliberations at a field hearing in Richmond, VA – at which the agency also heard from a panel of consumer and civil rights advocates, as well as payday industry representatives...