News
"Today, Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) and Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced the Survivor Financial Safety and Inclusion Working Group Act, a bill aimed at increasing support for survivors of intimate partner violence within the financial system.
The bill would create an interagency working group comprised of the federal financial regulators and relevant stakeholders, including a representative of historically underserved communities. The working group would be tasked with collecting data on the impacts of economic abuse of survivors carried out through regulated financial institutions. The working group would also provide recommendations on how Congress and federal regulators can help financial institutions improve existing products and services and launch new ones to meet survivors' financial and safety needs."
"House Democrats led by Rep. Maxine Waters, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, are asking regulators to update their merger review procedures.
The lawmakers said they are concerned about how long the regulators are taking to update their merger guidelines in light of President Biden's executive order from 2021 ordering agencies to revamp the bank merger review process."
"Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history who maintained his power in the face of dramatic convulsions in the Republican Party for almost two decades, will step down from that position in November.
McConnell, who turned 82 last week, announced his decision Wednesday in the well of the Senate, the chamber where he looked in awe from its back benches in 1985 when he arrived and where he grew increasingly comfortable in the front row seat afforded the party leaders."
"The Southeast has become distinctly more prosperous in just a few years — part of a shift in the geography of economic distress in the U.S., according to new data reported first by Axios."
"To ensure the United States continues to lead the world in financial innovation, the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry (NC-10), reintroduced the Financial Services Innovation Act. This legislation establishes federal regulatory 'sandboxes' through Financial Services Innovation Offices (FSIOs) at federal financial regulators, allowing entrepreneurs to test new products and services without sacrificing critical consumer protections."
"Jack Henry™ (Nasdaq: JKHY) announced today that Legacy Bank & Trust has doubled its asset size in two years by implementing a differentiated business strategy and revamping its technology stack to meet new growth areas and complex needs. The bank grew from $800 million assets in the first quarter 2022 to $1.7 billion today.
The 117-year-old Springfield, Missouri-based bank has a long history in rural markets. Over the last decade, the leadership team saw market needs and opportunities for growth in three new niche areas of business: affordable housing, new markets tax credits and commercial banking. New growth also led to competing in larger urban areas in Oklahoma and Texas. The bank's timely response to strong demand from financially underserved communities made it one of the largest affordable housing lenders in the Midwest and a reputable Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI)."
"A New York State program is funding community-based organizations to help low-income families gain financial literacy. News 4's Lynda Baquero reports."
"The murder of George Floyd in the spring of 2020 pushed discussions about racial equity to the center of national attention. Though sparked by murderous police brutality, the wave of protests across every major American city that summer explicitly extended beyond the critique of state-sponsored racial violence. Protesters and pundits expanded their lens to include wider structural racism across American society – and throughout the US economy.
The resulting movement, broadly associated with Black Lives Matter, challenged all sorts of institutions to take action in support of increased racial economic equity – including many that had no direct role in policing. Corporate America found itself confronted with its own role in shaping and retrenching such inequities – and many firms responded by publicly embracing various initiatives designed to redress their legacies of inequitable investment and curtailed economic opportunity.
The corporate embrace of racial equity efforts has taken various forms, including pledges of philanthropic capital, revamped internal policies related to diversity in the workplace and commitments to expand or invent new lines of business tailored to the issues that summer made unavoidable."
"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today reported on the first set of results from the newly updated Terms of Credit Card Plans survey. The survey data reveal that large banks are offering worse credit card terms and interest rates than small banks and credit unions, regardless of credit risk. In fact, the 25 largest credit card issuers charged customers interest rates of 8 to 10 points higher than small- and medium-sized banks and credit unions. This difference can translate to $400 to $500 in additional annual interest for the average cardholder."
"Carlos Naudon leads Ponce Bank, a Minority Depository Institution (MDI) and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) founded in the Bronx in 1960. Ponce Provides banking, loans, and education to underserved communities throughout NYC while supporting dozens of not-for-profits through its Ponce-de-Leon Foundation. Ranked #1 for community investment by Mighty Deposits, Ponce is committed to mission-driven banking and ranked #1 in housing focus among its CDFI peers while making 70% of recent mortgages to first-time homebuyers."