In the News

The Mississippi Link, May 4, 2022, Top US regulators proposed overhauling how banks lend hundreds of billions of dollars annually in lower-income communities, the first major revamp to the standards in more than two decades as lenders increasingly offer financial services online Thursday’s awards luncheon keynote was Kevin Davenport, senior advisor, Campaign and Coalition, National […]

The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2022, Fed, Biden Administration Float New Lending Rules for Lower-Income Areas Top U.S. regulators proposed overhauling how banks lend hundreds of billions of dollars annually in lower-income communities, the first major revamp to the standards in more than two decades as lenders increasingly offer financial services online. Consumer advocates

CU Today, May 3, 2022, How Can Billions be Saved in ‘Junk Fees?’ Consumer Groups Offer an Extensive List Responding to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) call for public input on “how to save Americans billions in junk fees charged by financial companies,” a half-dozen leading consumer advocacy organizations submitted an extensive comment letter detailing junk

New Haven Biz, May 2, 2022, Space Rethink: Chelsea Groton Bank reinvents branches, hosts classes to attract in-person visits, boost business Between 2008 and 2020, more than 13,000 bank branches closed across the United States, or about 14% of branches, according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, based in Washington, D.C. In Connecticut, banks closed

Your Stock Guide, May 1, 2022, The History of Lending Discrimination Laws today protect borrowers from discriminatory lending practices, but that wasn’t always the case. For decades U.S. banks denied mortgages to Black families—and those belonging to other racial and ethnic minority groups—who lived in certain areas “redlined” by a federal government agency called the Home Owners’

American Banker, April 27, 2022, New York Community and Flagstar delay merger, shift regulatory strategy New York Community Bancorp and Flagstar Bancorp are extending the deadline for their merger until late October and have decided the combined entity would be a national — not a state-chartered — bank. The change in strategy comes three months

NAFCU, April 26, 2022, Berger: Big banks have abandoned underserved communities In a new op-ed for American Banker, NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger calls out the soaring closure rate of big bank branches and its disproportionate impact on underserved, rural communities, while simultaneously hastening the formation of banking deserts. Recognizing the toll the pandemic took on

Insider Intelligence, April 25, 2022, CFPB looks into the financial challenges of rural communities in the US The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is looking into the financial challenges faced by rural communities in the US living in banking deserts. Eighty-six new banking deserts were created in rural areas from 2008 to 2016, according to the

American Banker, Waters’ proposed legislation would benefit underbanked communities A recent report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that while families and Main Street small businesses were desperate for financial support and counsel, America’s banks took advantage of the crisis to accelerate the pace of their already planned branch closures, escalating the formation rate of banking

Department of Health NYC, The 90-year-old financial policy that harms our health In New York City, many once-thriving neighborhoods experienced severe disinvestment as a result of redlining, which caused inequality that continued from one generation to the next. Neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s have higher rates of poverty even today – nearly 90

American Banker, April 20, 2022, Why this credit union says AI can reduce lending bias “A lot of times lenders are nervous about making changes to their models to improve their fairness because they’re concerned that if they make a change to their model, it may be considered a reflection that they had an unfair

First Merchants, April 19, 2022, First Merchants Bank opens a new Ohio banking center focused on positively impacting the local community They have partnered with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) through a five-year commitment to invest $1.4 billion in their communities including new branch access, down payment assistance programs and more. The bank is

Eisner Amper, April 18, 2022, The “Social” Component of ESG Investing In this episode of Engaging Alternatives Spotlight, Elana Margulies-Snyderman, Senior Manager, Publications, EisnerAmper, speaks with Eleni D. Janis, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Equivico, a New York City-based woman-owned impact investment management firm launched with support from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition

The New York Times, April 19, 2022, To the Editor: Preying on People of Color “Reverse redlining,” for example, is on the rise in housing, as minority neighborhoods are targeted with higher prices or unfair lending practices. Black homeownership has declined more drastically than for any other ethnic or racial group in the U.S.

MDJ Online, April 17, 2022, What will it take to replace the tens of thousands of trees cut down in Wichita? Wichita was recently identified by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition as one of the three most “redlined” cities in the nation in the 1930s, with nearly 64% of its neighborhoods graded as “hazardous” by