Diversity and equality

Women are making hardly any progress in landing top jobs in the global finance industry, despite a steady drumbeat of pledges to diversify, according to a new report.

The National Credit Union Administration took steps to increase hires of women, minorities and people with disabilities in 2021, making its staff more representative of the general population.

Lenders don't oppose CFPB data collection for small-business loans but favor changes that would minimize unintended consequences for borrowers, a Consumer Bankers Association official writes.

The bank asked to move the discrimination case from a Black magistrate to a supervising White district judge, which attorneys for plaintiffs said was an attempt to ‘redline the federal court.’

To ensure authenticity, Community First Credit Union had its AI-powered voice system learn by communicating with Spanish-speaking employees who could teach it local terms and mannerisms.

Banks have supported initiatives aimed at closing the racial equality gap but the industry risks undermining this by fighting new rules to gather demographic data on small-business lending.

Hundreds of women who’ve worked for Goldman Sachs Group were given a choice: remain in one of Wall Street’s biggest gender discrimination lawsuits, or leave for the more secretive system of arbitration.

The municipality and the bank have been at odds over similar issues in the past, and no agency currently has deposit accounts with the lender.

Bank of America saw its busiest year on record for sustainable finance deals as demand for environmental, social and governance investments accelerates. 

In conversation with Patti Cook, CEO of Finance of America Companies

By putting younger, more diverse talent in executive roles, CEOs of institutions such as Kaua'i Federal Credit Union in Hawaii and OnPath Federal Credit Union in Louisiana are taking steps to better represent the communities they serve.

Wells Fargo won an early round in a lawsuit accusing the bank of running a predatory mortgage lending scheme in the Atlanta area before the 2008 financial crisis and continuing to discriminate against minorities for more than a decade afterward.

Wells Fargo, which approved fewer than half of mortgage refinancings sought by Black homeowners in 2020, prompting calls for regulatory investigations, greenlighted a larger share of applications from such borrowers last year.

JPMorgan Chase said it will do a third-party audit of its $30 billion racial-equity commitment, following Citigroup and BlackRock in agreeing to such a review.

Banks and credit unions that use Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers to onboard customers without Social Security numbers are seeing sizable growth in loans and deposits from people who might otherwise be unbanked.

The North Carolina bank’s earlier $60 billion plan, which was tied to the BB&T-SunTrust merger, is set to expire this year. Its new efforts are a sign that such deals aren't always one-off arrangements meant to grease the rails for an acquisition.

The actions involved are based on findings by an interagency task force first convened last year by Marcia Fudge, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

David Miree will become global head of diversity, equity and inclusion for the New York megabank. He will succeed Brian Lamb, who will move into a new role in the firm’s commercial banking business.

The City Council recently voted 15-1 to establish a financial authority that would provide credit enhancements on loans to underserved borrowers. Public banking advocates say the effort is both an interim step for Philadelphia and a test case for other cities.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown and other Democratic senators called on Thursday for regulators to investigate Wells Fargo’s treatment of Black homeowners seeking to refinance mortgages during the pandemic.