Recent News
Boyd “Bo” Megginson has been named the new Vice President for Business Lending Services at United Bank. Megginson will drive business development efforts for the bank with an emphasis on small business lending. He brings more than 20 years of business consulting experience to the position. “[Megginson] understands the challenges businesses face when getting started and when looking to expand... our clients will appreciate the consultative approach he brings to business development," said United Bank President and CEO Robert Jones.
Carver Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank, has announced that the OCC has lifted a cease and desist order issued by the Office of Thrift Supervision. The OCC also no longer holds the bank in “troubled condition." “We are extremely pleased with the OCC’s decision to lift the cease and desist order," said Deborah C. Wright, Carver’s Chairman and CEO. "This action reflects the effectiveness of our board and management team’s extensive effort to restore the bank to financial health... Since our $55 million capital raise in 2011, our management... Read more
A new working paper on CDFI job metrics from CDFI network OFN recommends increased rigor and standardization of collection practices. The report includes findings from Create Jobs for USA, an initiative by OFN and Starbucks to support CDFIs' job creation activity. The authors hope the report will be a step forward in building a consensus among CDFIs about how job metrics ought to be collected, processed and reported. Among the report's recommendations are formalizing data collection policies and data point definitions, including quality control measures. The report also encourages clear,... Read more
Treasurers for state and local governments are expanding their roles in experimental policies aimed at helping low- and moderate-income families. San Francisco treasurer Jose Cisneros' Bank On initiative gives poor people low-cost bank accounts and has been replicated in more than 100 cities, helping people on the financial fringes access financial services and develop credit histories. In 2010, Cisneros also started Kindergarten to College, an initiative that automatically opened a bank account with $50 for every kindergartner in public schools, a program later emulated in Nevada by... Read more
The CFPB is facing a balancing act as it attempts to expand the massive Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) mortgage database. The Dodd-Frank Act requires the CFPB to expand data requirements, but the agency went beyond what was suggested by the law, proposing to add fields for home equity lines of credit, reverse mortgages and multi-family properties. Now, lenders are protesting that the CFPB went too far, while consumer advocates argue it hasn't gone far enough. The proposal was designed to make lenders provide more details on why a loan was accepted or rejected and disclose more... Read more
A new report finds a number of problematic trends in the online payday loan market including consumer harassment, threats, dissemination of personal information, fraud, unauthorized accessing of checking accounts and automated payments that do not reduce loan principal. Pew found that many online loans are designed to promote renewals and long-term indebtedness. Thirty percent of online payday loan borrowers report being threatened by a lender or debt collector. Thirty-two percent of borrowers reported unauthorized withdrawals and 20 percent received a loan or product they did not... Read more
Two Indian tribes with online lending operations have dropped a lawsuit filed against New York State, abandoning an effort to block the state from restricting their businesses. New York’s top banking regulator, Benjamin Lawsky, last year urged banks in his state to stop processing payments for lenders that violate the state’s cap on interest rates. The Oklahoma-based Otoe Missouria Tribe and Michigan-based Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians responded with a federal lawsuit against the state, arguing the state's campaign was trampling on their rights as sovereign tribes... Read more
A national survey of unbanked and underbanked households found that 7.7 percent of households in the US were unbanked in 2013 — nearly 9.6 million households. Twenty percent of households were underbanked. The unbanked rate peaked in 2011, when the percentage of households without a bank account hit 8.2 percent. Compared to 2011, households in 2013 had slightly higher levels of employment and income and were slightly older and better educated. Employment was the single largest determinant of banking status; among households that recently became unbanked, 34.1 percent had experienced either... Read more
The Federal Reserve has announced it will end its bond-purchase program, ending a quantitative easing experiment that stirred debate even as the central bank said it accomplished its goal of reducing unemployment. The move is a vote of confidence in the U.S. economy, which many economists peg to have grown at an annual pace near 3% or more in the third quarter. Officials will now turn their attention to determining when to start raising interest rates. The Fed has plans to maintain its current level of bond holdings until after it starts raising rates. Eventually, officials expect to... Read more
More than 50 companies that are members of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) -- including retail giants like Walmart and Target -- are refusing to accept Apple's new mobile wallet. At stake is the future of their favored rival, CurrentC, a wallet app that will connect directly to customers’ bank accounts. The app bypasses the credit card companies, allowing merchants to avoid the high fees they pay on each credit transaction. CurrentC would also give retailers the ability to track shopping habits across all MCX's member stores, a data set that has traditionally been held by credit card... Read more
A $140,000 Affordable Housing Program grant made by The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas through The First – A National Banking Association will help counseling agency Hancock Resource Center rehab 20 low-income, owner-occupied homes in Mississippi's rural Hancock County. At least 50 percent of the homes that will be selected for rehab are owned by people with special needs. All are low-income, and many are senior citizens. "This is our community, and many of our residents who benefit from programs such as this are our customers," said The First senior vice president and... Read more
CFPB director Richard Cordray signaled a more comprehensive approach to regulating bank operations at a forum on access to checking accounts earlier this month. Cordray focused on how financial institutions may use specialty credit scores to bar risky customers from opening accounts, or to target customers who are most likely to use overdraft protection as a credit product. Cordray criticized specialty consumer reporting agencies, which collect databases of “derogatory” information on customers, including how many times a consumer overdrew their account. Although the CFPB has raised these... Read more
Virginia Community Capital, parent of Community Capital Bank of Virginia, is an organization with an uncommon history and exceptional impact. Their story starts in 2005, when Governor Mark Warner (D-Va.) proposed a measure to send more capital to distressed areas of Virginia by granting $15 million in housing and small business loan fund assets to a CDFI. Today, projects completed with VCC loans have created 2,066 jobs and retained 1,098 jobs; created or preserved 4,824 affordable housing units; and built or improved 1.9 million square feet of commercial space. “We’re... Read more
Industrial Bank will be recognized for its significant contributions to the Washington D.C. community at the annual D.C. Chamber of Commerce Awards Gala. The Chamber praised Industrial Bank as a family success story, with leadership that has sustained success for both the bank and its city. “This award is presented to an individual or company that has contributed significantly to the progress and advancement of the District of Columbia, and Industrial Bank has done that and more,” said Barbara B. Lang, D.C. Chamber president and CEO. “It is businesses like Industrial Bank... Read more
American Banker Magazine has included BankPlus in its annual list of Best Banks to Work For, highlighting the bank's commitment to the health of its employees. Working with the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the bank has created a telehealth option in which employees can use an office webcam to see doctors for minor ailments. Visits, as well as certain prescriptions, will be free for employees. BankPlus also offers perks like filtered water, scales and premium insurance discounts to employees who pursue wellness. "Hopefully, next year at this time we will have... Read more
CDBA has submitted a comment letter to the CDFI Fund urging a new Capacity Building Initiative on social impact measurement. In the letter, CDBA called attention to the lack of standardization and the absence of an industry wide best practices repository, which both have hampered attempts to develop robust social impact metrics. CDBA recommended addressing these issues by structuring the initiative around two goals: determining the types of impact metrics that are appropriate to collect and promoting cross-industry information sharing. CDBA also recommended the CDFI Fund provide financial... Read more
Republicans have won majority control of the Senate, triggering a change of leadership in Senate committees which will once again put Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) at the helm of the Senate Banking Committee. Shelby is a staunch opponent of the Dodd-Frank act whose record is generally friendly to banks and Wall Street. But he has also pushed back on the banking industry, criticizing Wall Street for its role in the financial crisis. He also opposed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall provision, a firewall between investment and commercial banking. Shelby will likely focus on issues with bipartisan... Read more
A new study finds that Millennials are interested in local banking and would prefer to bank with locally owned and operated community institutions. The study found that 46 percent of Millennials feel banking with a locally owned banking institution is important. Of the age groups surveyed, Millennials were the most entrepreneurial, with 41 percent of saying they are very interested in starting up their own business, compared with 34 percent of Gen Xers and 17 percent of Boomers.... Read more
Kat Taylor of Beneficial State Bank spoke earlier this week at a networking event that connected startups, social entrepreneurs and nonprofits with impact lenders. The event was hosted by Hatch, a social incubator in Portland, Oregon. The program offers lenders an opportunity to learn about the needs of prospective clients and gives participants a chance to meet socially-minded financiers. Taylor said the lenders share a mission to build nurturing economies as much as business. In addition to Beneficial State Bank, lenders present included Albina Community Bank... Read more
Melvin Watt, Federal Housing Finance Agency chief, has announced a program offering more reassurances to mortgage banks that fear they could suffer unpredictable losses on the loans they sell to the government. The housing finance agency intends to relax the agreements that determine when Fannie and Freddie may require banks to buy back bad loans. Under the new program, the agencies would only demand buybacks when there is a pattern of misrepresentations and inaccuracies in the loans. The move is intended to reassure banks that have had to pay tens of billions of dollars to settle legal... Read more