In the News

The US Sun, August 19, 2023, Major US Bank With More Than 1,000 Locations Nationwide Closing Branch as Frustrated Customers Directed Elsewhere Fifth Third Bank announced it will be closing one of its banking locations in Cincinnati, Ohio. There are 102 Fifth Third branches in Greater Cincinnati, the most of any bank. According to Oates, the […]

The Final Call, August 22, 2023, Six Decades After The March On Washington, America Still Failing Black Folks A new report titled, “Still A Dream: Over 500 Years to Black Economic Equality,” found that “60 years after the famed March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his landmark

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, August 18, 2023, Six decades after King’s historic speech, report shows Black economic equality is ‘still a dream’ Titled “STILL A DREAM: Over 500 Years to Black Economic Equality,” the report, co-authored by prominent experts Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo, and Sally Sim, and published by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and National

Midlands Business Journal, August 11, 2023, Affordable Housing: Legacy of Redlining Stunts Healthy Growth The project, released in 2019, stems from a partnership from the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition where it digitized 200 HOLC grading maps from the 1930s. Using data from the 2018 U.S. Census’s American Community Survey

Top Class Action, August 8, 2023, Feds investigate HSBC over lending discrimination claims The US bank holding company for HSBC Bank disclosed earlier this week that its main retail banking unit has been under investigation by federal housing authorities over claims revolving around potential lending discrimination.  HSBC said it has been accused by the National Community Reinvestment

Baltimore Banner, August 5, 2023, Why aren’t people of color getting more home loans in Maryland? Advocates are pushing for changes Two advocacy groups are pushing for a state version of the federal Community Reinvestment Act to ensure more equitable treatment of people of color by home lenders. In Maryland, Black and Latino applicants were

American Banker, August 2, 2023, HSBC’s U.S. arm faces HUD probe over redlining allegations HSBC’s U.S. division is under federal investigation for potentially engaging in discrimination against minority borrowers in six metropolitan areas. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is reviewing the bank’s lending practices in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods within the

AIR, August 1, 2023, NCRC’S Van Tol On How Technology Can Change Consumer Finance As technology has transformed financial services in recent years, I think it’s fair to say that most consumer advocacy groups have focused on its downside risks, almost to the exclusion of upside opportunity. Today, there is of course continued concern about

Bloomberg Law, July 31, 2023, CFPB Small Business Loan Rule Partially Blocked Fair lending advocates blasted Crane’s reasoning and the banks’ challenge to the rule. “It’s a ludicrous and retrograde position to take, in effect asserting a right to discriminate in secret to illegally deprive marginalized communities of economic opportunity,” Jesse Van Tol, the president

Money Scoop, July 27, 2023, Too little, too late Also worth noting: The National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that there is a major gender wealth disparity among Black adults in the US, even though both Black men and Black women have significantly lower median wealth than their white counterparts. For context, single white men have a

WortFM, July 26, 2023, Repairing The Racial Wealth Inequality Divide Chief of Race, Wealth and Community for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Dedrick Asante-Muhammad talks about the foundations of wealth inequality from when early settlers needed cheap labor, thus creating racial inequality to justify enslavement of workers. His recent report, “From Affirmative Action To Reparations:

Housing Wire, July 26, 2023, Homelessness is not an unsolvable problem While many people think mental health issues are a main driver of homelessness, Marisa Calderon, chief of community finance and mobility at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and executive director at the NCRC Community Development Fund, said in an interview with HousingWire that homelessness is increasingly

NonProfit Quarterly, July 26, 2023, Containing Gentrification: A Story from the Nation’s Capital Gentrification is a complex and sensitive issue facing residents in many US cities. In Washington, DC, the gentrification process has been extraordinarily pronounced—with metro neighborhoods showing among the greatest level of resident displacement of any US city. A 2019 study by NCRC found that between

Social Policy, July 21, 2023, Community Benefits Agreements at the Forefront of Anti-Gentrification Initiatives If gentrification is the bogeyman in today’s community development advocacy circles, community benefit agreements (CBAs) appear to be the elixir, or at least one of them. Gentrification, of course, is little more than the current name for a process of uneven

Orlando Business Journal, July 14, 2023, Bank of America sells closed branch in Orlando as news breaks of national $250M payout Bank of America has sold one of its closed branches in south Orlando. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank (NYSE: BAC) sold a 3.67-acre property with a 6,331-square-foot branch at 2293 W. Sand Lake Road