On Our Radar

American Banker, September 10, 2024, NBT To Keep Evans Branch Offices After $236 Million Merger More than 70 banks have announced plans to sell in 2024, putting the year on track to eclipse last year’s total of 100. M&A in 2023 was held in check in large part by surging interest rates that spiked deposit […]

The American Project, July 15, 2024, California Voters Revisit Statewide Rent Control Law California is home to some of the country’s most rent-burdened individuals and families. Renters make up about 44 percent of households in the state. The average renter spends over half their income on payments to landlords. That means that 1 in 9 tenants are

The Washington Post, June 15, 2024, Biden To Unveil Plan To Cap Rents As GOP Convention Begins President Biden will unveil a new proposal in Nevada on Tuesday to cap rental costs nationwide, according to three people familiar with the matter, as he works to assuage Democratic concerns about the viability of his candidacy while the Republican convention

Market Watch, July 16, 2024, Biden Proposes Nationwide Cap On Rent Hikes To Lower Housing Costs. Experts Say It’s Counterproductive. President Joe Biden has proposed capping rent increases nationwide to 5% in an attempt to rein in surging housing costs, but housing experts are calling the move counterproductive. Biden’s proposed policy would restrict how much

Bloomberg, July 17, 2024, US Housing Starts Increase on Pickup in Multifamily Construction New US home construction picked up in June, though a decline in single-family housing starts to an eight-month low underscored a real estate market challenged by high interest rates. Total housing starts increased 3% to a 1.35 million annualized rate last month, driven by

CFPB, July 18, 2024, CFPB Proposes Interpretive Rule to Ensure Workers Know the Costs and Fees of Paycheck Advance Products The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today proposed an interpretive rule explaining that many paycheck advance products, sometimes marketed as “earned wage” products, are consumer loans subject to the Truth in Lending Act. The guidance will ensure

D.C. Policy Center, July 18, 2024, Priced Out: Where Can D.C.’s Essential Workers Afford To Live? This report examines housing affordability for essential workers—those who provide critical services for the city and its residents—in the District of Columbia. It is the latest publication in a series of papers focused on workforce housing in the District

Federal Reserve, July 19, 2024, Federal Reserve Board Takes Action To Address Consumer Compliance Breakdowns By Green Dot, Fining The Firm $44 Million For Numerous Unfair And Deceptive Practices And A Deficient Consumer Compliance Risk Management Program The Federal Reserve Board on Friday took action to address consumer compliance breakdowns by Green Dot, fining the

American Banker, July 1, 2024, Patrice Ficklin, CFPB’s Head Of Fair Lending, To Leave For Fannie Mae Patrice Ficklin, who has led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s fair lending office since it opened its doors in 2011, is leaving the agency to rejoin Fannie Mae. Ficklin has been the CFPB’s only fair lending director through seven acting

National Bankers Association, June 10, 2024, The Social Impact Of MDI Mortgage Lending In this report, we explore MDI mortgage lending from 2019-2022. Recent Federal Reserve data illustrates that homeownership was a key driver of wealth for U.S. households during this pandemic era, especially for minority households. Our analysis highlights the social impact of MDI mortgage

The Colorado Sun, June 1, 2024, Good Food And Stable Housing Have Huge Effects On Health. So Colorado Medicaid Wants To Cover Those, Too. For people who can’t afford safe housing or nutritious food, doctor visits and hospital stays can only do so much to fix health problems. That’s the premise behind a plan to

US Economic Development Administration, July 2, 2024, Biden-Harris Administration Announces Next Funding Round Of $504 Million For 12 Tech Hubs Across America The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), announced another funding round of approximately $504 million in implementation grants to 12 Tech Hubs to scale up the production of critical technologies,

Bloomberg, July 2, 2024, Homebuilders Cut On ‘Sluggish’ Housing Market, Florida Woes Homebuilder-stock analysts are increasingly worried about signs of softening in key hot spots like Florida and Texas. Lennar Corp. and D.R. Horton Inc. were downgraded by Citigroup Inc. analyst Anthony Pettinari on concerns the housing market could stay “sluggish” in the second half of the year. Raymond James

CNBC, July 2, 2024, How Thousands Of Americans Got Caught In Fintech’s False Promise And Lost Access To Bank Accounts When Natasha Craft first got a Yotta banking account in 2021, she loved using it so much she told her friends to sign up. The app made saving money fun and easy, and Craft, a now 25-year-old FedEx driver

Reuters, July 2, 2024, US Voters Press Congress Candidates To Fix Housing Crisis From suburban New York to rural Montana, candidates for U.S. Congress are getting an earful from voters stressed by stratospheric housing costs, interviews with Democratic and Republican campaigns and Reuters/Ipsos polling showed. At campaign stops in his New York state district, Democratic U.S. Representative