Press Releases
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Lawsuit Against JPMorgan Chase Charges Bank With Fraudulent And Deceptive Lending
New Economy Project filed a federal lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and a Bronx-based car dealer last week, charging that the defendants defrauded Manhattan resident Olga Arroyo into buying a car and taking out an auto loan, in violation of multiple state and federal consumer protection laws.
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Statement on NYC’s Ban of Discriminatory Employment Credit Checks
Today, Mayor de Blasio signed into law Intro 261, which bans employers in NYC from using credit checks in hiring and promotion decisions. New Economy Project commends the Mayor and NYC Council for taking this important step to end employment credit checks.
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Statement on NYC’s Action to End Unjust, Discriminatory Employment Credit Checks
New Economy Project is thrilled that New York City has taken action to end credit checks in employment, which unjustly block qualified New Yorkers, particularly people of color, from needed jobs. NYC Council is expected to pass this vital civil rights law on Thursday.
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Statement on CFPB Payday Lending Blueprint
Our organization has consistently urged the CFPB to set a high national bar for addressing predatory and exploitative payday lending. The CFPB’s blueprint indicates, however, that the agency is considering including glaring loopholes in its final payday lending rule, which would allow payday lenders continued latitude to make unaffordable high-cost loans. This approach is simply…
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Groups Welcome New Guidelines for Banks Selling Old Consumer Debt
Civil rights, consumer, and community groups lauded the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for issuing strong guidance this week regarding banks’ selling of charged-off consumer debts to debt buyers. The groups urged the agency to also take the next step and issue strong regulations to ensure that national banks do not continue…
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Groups in Four Key States Applaud End of Bank Payday Lending
Groups in four key banking states celebrated the end of bank payday lending, with the wave of announcements in recent weeks by Wells Fargo, US Bank, Fifth Third, and Regions Bank that they will each finally stop making predatory payday loans. Known as “direct deposit advance” loans, the banks’ payday loans carried triple-digit interest rates…
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Maps Reveal Stark Inequities in Mortgage Lending Based on Race in NYC
Mortgage lenders made markedly fewer conventional home mortgage loans in communities of color than in predominantly white neighborhoods in New York City, according to a series of GIS maps published today.
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New Yorkers Win Major Settlement in Groundbreaking Federal Lawsuit Against JPMorgan Chase
Millions of people who bank with JPMorgan Chase stand to benefit from a groundbreaking settlement just reached between Chase and two low income New Yorkers. Subrina Baptiste and Ivy Brodsky sued Chase in federal court last fall, after the bank refused their repeated requests to stop making payments from their accounts to internet payday lenders,…
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Debt Collection Industry Perpetrates Systemic Fraud on Hundreds of Thousands of New Yorkers, Says New Report
The debt collection industry perpetrates systematic, large-scale fraud against New Yorkers, using the courts as a collection mill and depriving hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers of due process, according to a report released today. Based on a statistical analysis of state-wide court data and a sample of debt-buyer cases, the report describes how debt…
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Groups in Four Key States Call for End to Payday Lending; Joint Report Highlights Need for Strong Action by Federal and State Regulators
Leading financial justice organizations from four key states today called on federal and state regulators to ban all types of payday lending. The organizations, from California, Illinois, New York, and North Carolina, released a report highlighting the need for strong state and federal laws, and filed detailed comment letters with federal regulators urging strong action…