On Our Radar

American Banker, February 1, 2023, American Banker: CFPB will cut credit card late fees to $8 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to cut credit card late fees to $8, wiping out up to $9 billion a year in fees that have become highly profitable for banks and credit card companies. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra […]

The New York Times, January 31, 2023, The Police Cannot Be a Law Unto Themselves In 2020, during the weeks of protest and civil unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, I argued that the problem of police violence and misconduct was a problem of democracy. And this week, in

Bloomberg, January 29,2023, Wall Street Is Losing Out to Amateur Buyers in the Housing Slump In this slice of the Sonoran Desert, the roles of vulture and carrion have suddenly reversed. First-time buyers and small investors have the upper hand on supposedly sophisticated players that badly misjudged the market. It’s quite a turnabout. More than

Forbes, January 27, 2023, Ending Affirmative Action Would Be A Terrible Mistake Just as with the rash Dobbs decision, it would be a terrible and partisan mistake to end affirmative action because its absence would generate profound consequences beyond the universities where the fight is playing out. Ending affirmative action will only compound the many lingering and

CNN, January 19, 2023, HUD Secretary on how to make fair housing a reality Under the leadership of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, HUD is taking bold action to realize the full promise of the Fair Housing Act and live up to King’s legacy. Soon, HUD will publish a “Notice of Proposed

JDSUPRA, January 27, 2023, Illinois Proposes Rules Implementing Its Community Reinvestment Act for Banks, Mortgage Lenders, and Credit Unions The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (“IDFPR”) has issued a notice of proposed rules to implement the newly passed Illinois Community Reinvestment Act (“ILCRA”), aimed at serving the credit needs of low- and moderate-income

Axios, January 9, 2023, Mortgage buydowns are the hot new thing helping the housing market The hot new thing in the moribund housing market is called a mortgage buydown — it’s one of the concessions home sellers are increasingly offering buyers to seal a deal.

Scotus Blog, January 6, 2023, Homeowners ask the justices to enforce a New York consumer-protection law against banks Many mortgage lenders require a financial tool called an “escrow account” for people who buy homes. These accounts hold extra money from borrowers to cover property taxes and home-insurance payments that accrue throughout the life of a

Next City, January 3, 2022, Remembering The Heroes Of Socially Responsible Investment With no financial track record, little staff capacity and only a sketchy plan, we somehow connected to the Adrian Dominicans, who had expanded their work of economic justice beyond shareholder activism to affirmative investment in organizations fighting poverty. In the fall of 1982,

American Banker, January 4, 2023, The tech challenges facing minority banks and how they can solve them The National Bankers Association, whose member banks are minority depository institutions that hold assets of $400 million on average (excluding East West Bancorp in Pasadena, California, which has $62.5 billion of assets), has conducted further research to identify

Insider, January 4, 2023, The rise of ‘Zoomtowns’ is going to make home prices and rents cheaper for everyone It’s easy to blame remote workers for the pandemic’s chaotic housing market. Highly paid white-collar employees who exercised their newfound freedom and turned once cheap locales into expensive “Zoomtowns” make for vivid villains.

United States Census Bureau, January 4, 2023, Minority Business Ownership Differs by Sector The diversity of business owners mirrors the changing profile of the nation’s population. The 2020 Census found that the population of nearly all race and ethnicity groups in the United States had grown since 2010 with the exception of the White alone population, which

CNN Business, January 5, 2023, Here’s what to expect in the housing market this year Throughout 2022, the Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark interest rate at a record pace to slow the economy and fight high inflation. Housing took the brunt of the impact, as the most interest rate-sensitive sector of the economy. The Fed’s

American Banker, November 21, 2022, Credit card demand rises as pandemic boost to consumers’ wallets wanes Consumer demand for credit cards is on the rise — and lenders’ rejection rates are down — even as the mortgage and auto lending sectors show signs of retrenchment. The percentage of U.S. consumers who said they applied for

The New York Times, November 22, 2022, Is N.Y.’s Child Welfare System Racist? Some of Its Own Workers Say Yes. For decades, Black families have complained that the city’s child welfare agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, is biased against them. It turns out that many of the agency’s own employees agree, according to a