Topic
Financial System
“Income is how you get out of poverty; assets are how you stay out.” How do we build policies, programs, and products that reduce systematic inequality and advance financial security for all?
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Affordable Housing Financing Is Overpriced, But It Doesn’t Have to Be
Affordable housing construction finance reflects market norms, but its track record shows it’s far less risky than conventional market-rate housing loans. While lower default rates should lead to lower interest rates, they currently do not.
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CDFIs and the Expansion of the Payroll Protection Program
The Payroll Protection Program is an expansion of a program for banks and credit unions. It offers virtually nothing to nonprofit small-business lenders.
Let’s Interrupt History: Racial Equity in a Time of Crisis
Data on the pandemic shows once again the dramatic consequences of racial inequalities. CDFIs must focus on ensuring equity for Black-owned businesses.
Making Loans to Help Formerly Incarcerated People Get Back on Their Feet
CDFIs and nonprofits are figuring out how to help formerly incarcerated people build credit histories and access capital in order to get their lives going.
Help for Small Businesses
What kinds of emergency measures are advocacy organizations proposing to make sure that when small businesses can open again, they’ll be financially able to do so?
Business as Usual: Trump Agencies Resist Calls to Suspend Non-Essential Rulemaking
Congressional leaders and community advocates are calling on HUD and financial regulators to suspend non-essential rulemaking. HUD appears to refuse.
Pulling the Rug From Under Community Development?
Investments and funding motivated by the Community Reinvestment Act are more foundational to the work of community developers than is often discussed. But if regulations change the incentives for banks, the effects on communities will be dramatic.
Financial Coaches, Let’s Be Upfront About Economic Structural Racism
Financial education messaging is too often presented as if individual behavior and attitudes are the cause of our growing economic challenges rather than our social, economic, and political systems.
Could Lack of Impact Assessment in OCC and FDIC Proposal Break CRA?
Proposed changes to CRA by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the FDIC conflict with the best practices of community development.
Only Halfway to Economic Democracy
Few books make me so angry that I must resist throwing them across the floor. One such book, published in 2002 (and since updated) was Greg Palast’s The Best Democracy […]
Redlining Would Be Relegalized by CRA Reform Proposal
In an attempt to make compliance easier for banks, regulators are proposing to incentivize the very thing the Community Reinvestment Act was written to fight.
Protecting the Community Reinvestment Act Is an Investment in Economic Justice
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation just released a set of proposed rules for the Community Reinvestment Act that threaten the very heart of the law.
New Writings Suggest Incremental Change Is Best Path for CRA Reform
These writings suggest that careful reform of CRA regulations can build upon the progress in lending and investing if the reforms are incremental instead of “transformational.”