John Taylor on CNBC’s Street Signs June 24, 2010
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Financial Reform Cannot Happen Without Removing Monetary Incentives
CONFERENCE WATCH:
NCRC Urges Committee Withstand Pressure to Remove Independent Appraisals, Sounds Concern on Rating Agencies’ Conflict of Interest But Praises Senate Vote on Homeowner Advocate in HAMP Program
Washington, DC (June 16, 2010) — Today John Taylor, CEO and President of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, urged the conference committee to withstand pressure to remove independent appraisal requirements on mortgages in the financial reform bill and expressed disappointment with its failure to resolve the troubling conflict of interest between credit rating agencies and Wall Street. Taylor also urged inclusion of an Office of the Homeowner Advocate in HAMP to conduct loan modification appeals brought by homeowners and serve as a policy voice for homeowners.
Taylor said: “Financial reform cannot happen with removing the existing monetary incentives we have allowed the financial industry to build into financial products, including mortgages and the services rating agencies provide. We took a step backward yesterday by refusing to deal with the rating agencies’ conflict of interest. We cannot afford to take another step backwards by caving to pressure from the brokers and Realtors to remove independent appraisals on mortgages. Inflated valuations on homes helped blow the housing bubble bigger and bigger until it burst. To prevent another crisis, we need to remove the financial incentives to do more harm than good.”
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Wall Street Reform Passes Senate
Senate bill weaker on consumer protections than House bill will need to get strengthened in conference committee
Washington, DC– Today, the United States Senate passed a financial reform bill . A last minute managers amendment from Senator Dodd has not been made public yet, but based on the details of the bill known earlier today, John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), made the following statement:
The Senate has today passed a promising financial reform bill: necessary financial reforms will become law. But this legislative victory came at a great cost. More than 8 million Americans lost their livelihood, and millions are losing their homes. Families and whole neighborhoods have been torn apart. Unfortunately, this is more than lost decade for many Americans; this has been the destruction of the American Dream.
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Foreclosure Prevention Gains Little Ground
Voluntary nature, rising unemployment and underwater homeowners impede progress of foreclosure prevention program
Washington, DC -Today, the Treasury Department released figures for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) through April of this year. The numbers show that roughly 300,000 borrowers have received a permanent modification under the program. Meanwhile, foreclosure filings continue at a rate above 300,000 for the 14th straight month, according to Realty Trac .
"The latest HAMP numbers continue to be underwhelming. While it’s clear that some progress has made, it’s been incremental at best. The program is positioned to help a very modest percentage of borrowers weather the storm, but not to end the foreclosure crisis. At these levels of prevention, the foreclosures will continue to gnaw away at the economy," said John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC).
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Wall Street Pulling Out All the Stops to Maintain Veil of Secrecy
Wall Street Pulling Out All the Stops to Maintain Veil of Secrecy and Avoid Accountability Brought by Financial Reform Bill
Senate bill needs to get stronger to protect consumers
Washington, DC — As the Wall Street reform debate opens in the Senate, the financial services lobby is pulling out all the stops to weaken or even kill the financial reform bill. On a mission to fight off oversight and accountability, Wall Street banks have already poured in millions of dollars, deployed over a thousand lobbyists, including former members of congress, all in efforts to fight off the bill and guard their lofty profits. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition urged the Senate today to fight on behalf of the American people for strong reform that ensures that the financial system is fair, transparent, and accountable.
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Foreclosure In The Nation’s Capital: How Unfair and Reckless Lending Undermines Homeownership
Click here to download a PDF of the Full Study Click here to download PDF of Executive Summary
Study Shows Wall Street Pipeline Encouraged Risky, Abusive Loans
Study of DC area loans reveals racial component to lending and foreclosure unexplained by objective underwriting criteria.
Washington, DC – As financial reform works its way through the Senate, a new study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) indicates that subprime lending and subsequent resulting foreclosures were led by the private market and contained a clear racial component not explained by objective underwriting criteria. African American and Latino borrowers were more likely to receive a subprime loan, and to go into foreclosure, than similarly situated white homeowners, controlling for credit risk and other borrower, neighborhood and loan characteristics. The Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) appeared to have a moderating effect on risky and abusive lending practices; privately securitized loans went into foreclosure twice as often as loans backed by the GSEs.
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John Taylor testifies on CRA before House Financial Services Committee
The current foreclosure and economic crisis was caused in significant part by unregulated and risky lending. The federal government has obligated $23 trillion in rescuing the financial industry. Two major rationales motivated Congress to enact CRA in 1977. First, Congress believed that all creditworthy borrowers needed to have access to financial services regardless of their income class. It was true in 1977 and still true today that few working class, blue collar citizens can pursue their American Dream or build businesses without fair access to the financial system. Second, banks must have an obligation to serve their communities in return for FDIC deposit insurance and the full faith and backing of the American taxpayer. Today, both rationales must be applied to the entire industry since government financial and institutional support rescued the financial industry from its recklessness. In addition, a broad application of CRA can safeguard the financial industry and return it to profitability by requiring safe and sound lending and investments in neighborhoods.
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NCRC Commends Bank of America on Launching Principal Reduction Program
Washington, DC — In reaction to the news that Bank of America would launch a principal reduction program, John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, today made this statement: “Bank of America is to be commended for launching a program to reduce principal balances on loans that are underwater. Principal reduction
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Obama Administration Announces Changes to Foreclosure Prevention Programs
Washington, DC – Today the Obama Administration will announce changes to the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and to FHA. John Taylor, president & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition made the following statement:
“The Administration has once again shown their willingness to go back to the drawing board to address programmatic challenges. The enhancements announced today will be helpful to unemployed borrowers and some homeowners who find themselves underwater.”
“But I’m not optimistic that the incentives will be enough to entice servicers and investors to reduce loan principals. Will they help seven million people who are at risk of foreclosure? I will be pleasantly shocked if investors step up for half a million borrowers. The real acceleration in the number of foreclosures prevented will come with mandatory principal writedowns.”
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Foreclosure Rescue Scams: A Nightmare complicating the American Dream” – A research study by NCRC
Today, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition released a report addressing the concerns surrounding foreclosure prevention rescue scams. The research study was conducted for a period of three months in mid-2009 using “fair lending matched pair testing” or mystery shopping” to assess the extent of the problem. Findings of the study demonstrate that an aggressive legislative
Foreclosure Rescue Scams: A Nightmare Complicating the American Dream
The report addresses the concerns surrounding foreclosure prevention rescue scams. The research study was conducted for a period of three months in mid-2009 using “fair lending matched pair testing” or mystery shopping” to assess the extent of the problem. Findings of the study demonstrate that an aggressive legislative solution and added public and private oversights
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House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Looks at Making Home Affordable Shortfalls
Survey of Loan Modifications Reveals Troubling Trends
Washington, DC – Today, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition will testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has opened an investigation into Making Home Affordable, the federal foreclosure prevention program. As part of the Committee’s investigation, NCRC released a survey of homeowner experiences in the loan modification process, conducted by over 29 housing counseling organizations affiliated with the organization.
“We’ve surveyed housing counselors from the front lines of the foreclosure crisis, and they tell us that the battle is being lost.” said John Taylor, president & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “While this administration has been more proactive than the last, Making Home Affordable is simply failing to make enough of a difference relative to the size of the problem. It’s not for lack of good ideas, including more aggressive principal reductions that this crisis has been allowed to continue mostly unabated. The end result, if we don’t get ahead of this problem now, is the ongoing loss of wealth from America’s communities.”
NCRC Releases Small Business Lending Study (July 2010)
Small businesses are the driving force behind job creation, yet many struggle to find the capital they need to survive and grow. Women and minority-owned businesses face additional impediments. Today, we’re pleased to announce a new NCRC study, “Does CRA Small Business Lending Increase Employment: an Examination on a County Level.” The study looks at over 500 counties around the country, exploring the national impact of Community Reinvestment Act on small business lending.
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“Given the massive bailouts that Wall Street and the nation’s banks received from taxpayers to correct for predatory and reckless lending, Congress should mandate that the financial services industry give back to neighborhoods and communities they harmed by modernizing and expanding the Community Reinvestment Act,” said John Taylor, president & CEO of NCRC, in testimony on Thursday, April 15th, 2010.