Citadel FCU Redlining Settlement Proves It’s Time To Bring Credit Unions Under Community Reinvestment Act Enforcement
By NCRC
Citadel FCU in October agreed to a $6.5 million settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ). DOJ alleged that Citadel discouraged would-be homebuyers in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods of Philadelphia from applying for mortgages and systematically declined to make mortgages in those neighborhoods. Citadel maintains its innocence in the settlement. [Read more]
Testimony & Regulatory Comments
NCRC Comments on Square’s Proposed CRA Strategic Plan Outline how Square Exploits the ILC Charter to Avoid Reinvestment Obligations
By NCRC
Overall, the SFS CRA Strategic Plan reflects a strategy of regulatory arbitrage, avoidance and aiming for the bare minimum to meet the letter of the law. SFS uses federal and state banking law as tools for avoiding obligations and has insulated itself from safety and soundness and consumer protection laws by building layer upon layer of avoidance mechanisms to skirt regulatory obligations. [Read more]
Views
Credit Card Monopolies Are Exploiting Small Businesses. Here’s What The Feds Are Doing About It. By Manan Shah and Lauren Wolters
Credit card processing fees have been a problem for small businesses for many years. These fees, also known as interchange fees or swipe fees, are paid by the merchant’s bank to a cardholder’s bank when a customer uses their card to make a purchase. Small businesses are especially affected by credit and debit card swipe fees that cut deep into their costs due to their small volume of sales. [Read more]
October Surprise? 2024 Race, Jobs, And The Economy Update
By Joseph Dean
In September, consumer sentiment had its biggest drop since 2021 as consumers became more pessimistic about the labor market, business conditions and future income growth. The top concern among households remains prices. October could see a spike in oil prices as war in the Middle East could seize up the world’s oil supply just weeks before the US election. October could very well bring a massive surprise to the economy despite the strong September jobs report. November’s job report will show whether this month's jobs gains are a new trend for the economy or an abnormality. [Read more]
Research
NCRC Mortgage Market Anaylsis
By NCRC
In 2023, mortgage lending was shaped by rising home prices and a return to historically normal interest rates, creating an unprecedented perfect storm: high values attracted home investors looking for expensive assets and rental revenue, while higher borrowing costs limited the options for homebuyers. [Read more]
Events
NCRC CDF Series II: Session 6: Financial Reporting for Informed Decision-Making
October 31, 10 - 11 amET
Join NCRC's Community Development Fund and learn to leverage financial reports to assess business performance, identify trends, and inform strategic choices. We'll cover key metrics and reporting tools to keep your business on the path to success. [Register here]
Just Economy Conversations: Preserving Homeownership and Wealth Creation by Addressing Heirs’ Property and Tangled Titles November 7, 2-3 pm ET
Join NCRC for Just Economy Conversations, a series of online discussions addressing America’s racial and socio-economic divides. This webinar will provide an overview of residential heirs’ property in urban and rural areas, describing the risks they pose for long-term homeownership and the limits they place on family wealth building. Presenters will discuss proposed housing finance solutions needed to support heirs’ property owners and successful efforts in New York City, with a focus on lending programs that include eligibility for heirs’ property owners.[Register here]
In The News
Consumer Advocate, Fintechs Urge CFPB, FHFA To Adopt AI Guidance
By Kate Berry, American Banker
The four fintechs are members of the NCRC's Innovation Council for Financial Inclusion, a forum that discusses and pursues policy goals in which industry and consumer groups are aligned. Machine learning and some "deep learning categories of AI" can be responsibly used to develop underwriting models to help lenders comply with anti-discrimination laws, the letter states. [Read more]
Banks Are Omitting Data About Race From Home Loans- Preventing Researchers From Identifying Racist Lending And Its Solutions
By Michael del Castillo, Yahoo! Finance
“The impact is profound,” according to an NCRC report published today, “as these gaps hinder our ability to understand who is receiving loans and under what terms, which is vital for assessing fairness and inclusivity.” To help combat the problem the NCRC today pledged to never again use any data that doesn’t include demographics on race. “Beginning with this report, NCRC is eliminating records without demographic data from our calculations of the percent of loans made to specific races,” the researchers wrote. [Read more]
On Our Radar
The Little-Known Factor Driving Up Housing Costs: Dirty Money
By James K. Boyce and Leonce Ndikumana, Politico
These illicit financial flows don’t just hurt the citizens of countries like Congo. The looted money that flows into urban real estate markets pushes up prices for ordinary Americans, from first-time homebuyers who can’t get into the market, to families who can’t afford to “trade up” to a larger home, to tenants whose rents are pushed upward. Dirty money is a major but little-recognized contributor to our current housing crisis. [Read more]
How Would Harris Build 3 Million New Housing Units?
By Conor Dougherty, New York Times
Reduced to its essence, Ms. Harris’s plan aims to flood the system with money for builders and buyers in the hope that it will jolt the construction market. It calls on Congress to expand a federal tax credit for subsidized rental housing while creating a new tax credit for developers to build starter homes, and another credit for families looking to rehabilitate their own worn-down housing stock. It also creates a $25,000 credit for first-time home buyers. [Read more]
Resources
Work And Meet At The Just Economy Club It's aDC hubfor nonprofits and the social sector, around the corner from the White House. Move your team into a private office or host your meetings and events or hang out in the lounge. [Read more]
Learning & Training Hub Register for NCRC's catalog of professional development courses for community development leaders. [Learn more]
Research And Reports We have an extensive library of research and reports that dates back many years! [View all]
Sign And Share The Just Economy Pledge America should not only promise but deliver to all Americans opportunities to build wealth and live well. Sign and share the pledge to help us expand the movement for a Just Economy. [Sign and Share]
Fair Lending Tool Use our interactive tool to produce a report on mortgages, small business lending and bank branch networks for any city, county or metro area in the nation. [Access the tool here]
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