Demographics

A strategy to reinvigorate black-owned financial institutions would not only bring hope to the black community but would also be an inspiration for other minorities who seek to be more effectively served by financial institutions that understand their needs.

WASHINGTON — More than one hundred House Democrats sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray on Wednesday calling for the agency to strengthen its proposal to rein in payday lending.

Lenders are starting to bring artificial intelligence into their lending processes. Some wonder whether the machines can make rational, unbiased choices.

The parent company of the consumer lender LendUp has been fined more than $6.3 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the California Department of Business Oversight for overcharging borrowers and violating payday and installment lending laws.

An unusual investment by the Minneapolis company shows how big banks are developing innovative partnerships to deliver financial services in low-income neighborhoods.

Ten institutions are rising above national grievances to help startups – many minority owned – get up and running in a struggling mill town.

Contrary to their stated goals, the Fed's post-crisis regulatory and monetary policies may be contributing to U.S. income and wealth inequality, according to a new paper based on academic research from the Federal Reserve and foreign regulators.

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposes new small-dollar lending rules, it has also sought comment on an alternative plan that would open the door to banks providing more lower-income credit solutions.

Banks are making it easier to get approved for a checking account. But once-banished customers may not be able to use some of the features that made having an account attractive in the first place.

Emboldened by supportive comments from presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, community development banks are asking regulators for more leniency in areas such as disclosure fees and Bank Secrecy Act enforcement.

The slow start to Fifth Third's 3%-down mortgage illustrates some of the logistical challenges with such programs, which are on the rise across the industry.

Green Dot Corp. has tapped one of its board members, Mary Dent, to take the helm of its banking unit.

As banks start giving work formerly done by humans to artificial intelligence programs, questions about legal and ethical implications arise. The time to impose values on, and set limits for, the technology is now.

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau prepares to finalize its rule on prepaid cards, the agency must clarify that automated overdraft products – a common reason consumers dump their banks – are not allowed on prepaid accounts.

U.S. Bancorp is the latest big bank to offer an overdraft-free account. Skeptics are questioning how many Americans are benefiting from these products, and want banks to do more to market them.

Possible bad outcomes from the slowdown in bank chartering include less financial access in rural areas and further concentration of industry assets in just a few large banks.

Green Dot profits more than doubled to $8 million in the second quarter as revenues rose slightly and expenses ticked down.

The age-old fight over whether earnings forecasts are essential for investors or bad for the economy has new legs, and banks are square in the middle of it.

In a perfect world, better financial literacy — along with equipping bankers with ethical standards — would make the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau obsolete.

The linchpin of the federal government's payday lending proposal is a credit-reporting system for small-dollar loans created by the private sector, but the kinds of companies that could create it haven't stepped forward.