A bill gaining support in the U.S. House of Representatives could wipe out state laws that save homeowners an estimated $9.1 billion a year, according to a study released Thursday by Center for Responsible Lending in Durham.

Center officials tout their study as the most comprehensive and the first to provide an arsenal of data showing that state laws barring predatory loan practices not only work, but save consumers billions of dollars a year.

Researchers gathered and analyzed data on 5 million home loans made from 1998 to 2000 in states with substantive protections against predatory loans. Their analyses, which factored in changes in interest rates and economic growth, compared the experience of those borrowers with others in states with minimal or no protections.

Researchers found:

* States that enacted anti-predatory lending laws in recent years reduced the number and severity of lending abuses, such as steep prepayment penalties, balloon payments and the sale of high-cost loans to borrowers who could qualify for lower rates.

* States with the strongest laws saw the biggest gains against predatory loans. In North Carolina, an additional one in three credit-challenged borrowers would have been sold a loan with abusive features if not for the state's law, the report said.

* Anti-predatory lending laws passed in 28 states since 1999 have not decreased access to credit for low-income or credit-challenged borrowers in the so-called subprime market.

* Subprime borrowers paid the same or less in fees and interest in states where mortgage lending laws were reformed. The portion of loans with prepayment penalties dropped 17 points to 51 percent from 1998 to 2004 in these states. The portion of loans with balloon payments declined from 14 percent to zero in the same period.

"We have empirical proof that these laws are working," said Keith Ernst, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending. "Take them away and we're right back to where we started."

Ernst and officials from Massachusetts, Iowa and New Mexico held a teleconference Thursday to raise awareness of predatory lending. They also promoted an alternative bill introduced last year by Rep. Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat whose district covers Raleigh and the Piedmont.

The speakers said that the Ney-Kanjorski bill, named after its sponsors, Ohio Reps. Bob Ney, a Republican, and Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat, would override anti-predatory lending laws.

North Carolina was the first to enact such legislation.

Supporters of the Ney-Kanjorski bill say it would streamline as many as 50 distinct lending codes into one federal standard.

That would not only lower business costs, supporters say, but increase the availability of credit across all states by encouraging lenders through a clear standard.

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