Press Releases
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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…
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Groups from Across U.S. Protest Bank of America’s Abusive Practices, at Bank’s Annual Shareholder Meeting in Charlotte, NC
New Economy Project, an economic justice organization based in New York City, spoke out at Bank of America’s annual shareholder meeting today in Charlotte, NC, and demanded accountability by the multi-trillion dollar bank. Joined by allies from California and North Carolina, New Economy Project detailed harms Bank of America causes to communities through its abusive…
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David vs. Goliath Shareholder Resolution Shakes Up Wells Fargo’s Annual Shareholder Meeting
New Economy Project, an economic justice group based in New York City, spoke out today at Wells Fargo’s annual shareholder meeting in Salt Lake City, protesting the bank’s abusive and discriminatory mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices, and delivering testimonials from low income New Yorkers harmed by the bank. The group, which holds shares in Wells…
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Labor-Community Coalition calls for ban on employment credit checks
A coalition of more than 60 labor, civil rights, community and student groups today called on the New York City Council to pass Intro. 857, the Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act, which would ban credit checks by employers in NYC. More than a dozen NYC Council Members joined the coalition for a press conference…