Yes, the CRL, Center for Responsible Lending, who we in the payday loan industry like to refer to as “The Center for Irresponsible Lending” has done it again. They “helped craft” new federal legislation with the aid of U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C.
The bill, called The Payday Lending Limitation Act of 2010, would modify the Truth in Lending Act. Senator Hagan will introduce it as a standalone today, and again next week as an amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill making its way through the Senate.
And just who is The Center for Responsible Lending?
Herb and Marion Sandler! According to ActivistCash.com:
“Herb and Marion Sandler are the billionaire founders of the Center for Responsible Lending. The Sandlers made a fortune in the subprime mortgage industry, thanks to the success of their bank, Golden West Financial.
Golden West and its subsidiary, World Savings Bank, were among the biggest sources of subprime mortgages, especially of adjustable-rate loans called option-ARMs. Herb Sandler is credited with the invention of the option-ARM, which his bank marketed as “Pick-a-Payment” mortgages. These loans were extraordinarily popular in the years preceding the subprime mortgage crisis, generating billions in profits for the Sandlers’ banking empire.
Recent exposés by “60 Minutes” and the New York Times have focused national attention on the Sandlers’ role in the subprime crisis. The Sandlers’ loans, described in the Times as “the Typhoid Mary of the mortgage industry,” are part of a second wave of toxic debt predicted to default over the next several years, hitting the economy with another $600 billion in losses.
The Sandlers made over $2.3 billion on the sale of their company to Wachovia in 2006, and they have used their fortune to fund organizations advancing their political aims. They have given millions of dollars to left-wing groups, including ACORN (radical activists implicated in election fraud investigations in over a dozen states), and the Center for Responsible Lending (a “consumer advocacy” front-group that lobbied for expanded subprime lending while promoting its funders’ business interests).”
