The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged predatory lending

How Payday Lenders Spent Millions to Win Every Battle – Only to Lose the War

By | 05.27.10 | 6:00 am

By all accounts, Sen. Kay Hagan’s (D-N.C.) amendment to Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill was an excellent one. The first-term senator had a long-standing reputation in her home state for fighting payday lending, the $42 billion a year industry that offers easy-to-get short-term loans in exchange for More…

Attend a Consumer Advisory Council Meeting – See for Yourself

By | 03.24.10 | 1:27 pm

The Consumer Advisory Council meets this Thursday in Washington — and the goings-on are open to the public. If you register online by today, you can attend.

You might get a feel for how consumer protection would be handled under the Fed.

During the Boom, Greenspan Never Attended His Own Consumer Advisory Council’s Meetings

By | 03.24.10 | 1:19 pm

By the way, if you’re going through the transcripts of the Consumer Advisory Council, you’ll see that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke attends the meetings, which are held three times a year in Washington, D.C.

We were curious: During the boom, did former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan ever go to More…

What’s Next for the CRA?

By | 01.18.10 | 6:00 am

foreclosure-new-house

An ambitious plan to update the Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act that supporters hope to see signed into law in 2010 comes amid charges that this legislation was responsible for nothing less than the subprime crisis and the resulting collapse of the residential real estate market.

The plan, sponsored by More…

New Accusations That Wells Fargo Targeted Blacks for Subprime Loans

By | 12.31.09 | 11:14 am

This time in Memphis. In fact, city officials are so fired up that they’ve filed a lawsuit charging the mortgage-loan giant with discrimination. The New York Times reports:

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Tennessee, marshaled a raft of statistics to argue that Wells Fargo offered one

More…

White House Loan Modification Plan Falls Flat

By | 12.10.09 | 1:54 pm

It was last December when Julio Angulo ignored the bitter cold and sat on a rusted patio chair in the front yard of his foreclosed home in suburban Manassas, Va. He sighed, resting his hand on his knee. He stared despondently at the sky. His lender had foreclosed on his More…

Financial Literacy Coalition Teams Up With Subprime Lender

By | 10.02.09 | 6:00 am

The JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, a national nonprofit advocacy group that aims to improve the financial management skills of America’s youth, draws lots of attention for its surveys measuring how much kids really understand money. Last spring, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke More…

Tavis Smiley Issues New Statement on Wells Fargo

By | 09.22.09 | 4:28 pm

As TWI has reported, Wells Fargo & Co. teamed up with talk show host and commentator Tavis Smiley for “Wealth Building” seminars in black neighborhoods beginning in 2005. A suit by the Illinois attorney general contends Wells used the seminars to market high-cost and risky subprime loans to More…

Tavis Smiley Says He’s Cutting Ties to Wells Fargo

By | 09.20.09 | 7:05 pm

Prominent author, commentator and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley has announced that he’s cutting all business ties to Wells Fargo & Co. The move comes in the wake of a TWI story last week about Wells Fargo “Wealth Building” seminars held in black neighborhoods starting in 2005, More…

Suit Alleges Trusted Blacks Drew Minorities to High-Rate Loans

By | 09.17.09 | 2:39 pm

As the housing market began booming in the mid-2000s, Wells Fargo & Co. teamed up with prominent African American commentator and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley and financial author Kelvin Boston, the host of “Moneywise,” a multicultural financial More…