Credit unions are helping out in a number of ways, including one institution that provided scholarships to student who excelled at a game about personal finance.

Credit Union Trust, a new credit union service organization, has obtained a bank charter that it will use in offering trust and investment-related services.

The total includes donations to community groups helping low-income people, support for the development of financial coaching programs and investment in the creation and testing of fintech tools that can help underserved people.

Choices of which homes are used for comparisons play a major role in disparate home valuations for Black and white homeowners, according to studies recently released by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and academic researchers.

It came as a surprise to many housing experts that Asian, Black and Hispanic homeownership rates all jumped last year by more than 2 percentage points, according to quarterly Census Bureau data.

The acquisition, which was originally expected to close at the end of last year, ultimately took more than 18 months to receive regulatory approval. It is now expected to close on Dec. 1.

Bank fees don't arise from a naked profit-grab, but from an effort to offset current or expected losses. Eliminating one kind of fee just pushes banks to find an alternative method of recouping those losses.

Every time we revise bank capital rules, we uncover new flaws that leave banks unprepared for unexpected stress events.

The president-elect's sweeping victory last week suggests a mandate from voters to bring back the economy he presided over in his prior term. But his policies on immigration, trade and federal spending could give voters — and banks — exactly what they don't want.