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Washington, DC – A new report from the Congressional Oversight Panel shows that the Administration’s leading foreclosure prevention program, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), will modify less than 5% of the loans that will go into foreclosure by program end. An estimated 8 to 13 million foreclosures will take place by 2012. The report […]
While HAMP Program Continues to Fail, Treasury Hides the Ball Read More »
Files 22 Complaints With HUD Over Lenders’ Unfair & Discriminatory Policies
WASHINGTON, DC — The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) today called on federal agencies and banking regulators to investigate the nation’s largest Federal Housing Administration (FHA) approved lenders for possible violations of federal housing rules by refusing to offer loans to qualified Americans to the FHA policy of a minimum credit score of 580 and above with a 3.5% downpayment.
A recent NCRC investigation found that the majority of top FHA lenders failed to offer applications for federal-guaranteed loans to potentially qualified borrowers with credit scores below 620 or 640, even though FHA guarantees loans with credit scores to 580. These lenders have policies that establish “credit overlays” above the FHA policy, with minimum credit score requirements as high as 640. One-third of all Americans have credit scores under 620.
“Critical to our nation’s economic progress is the ability of homeowners to get quality refinancing, and for homebuyers to reclaim vacant houses by accessing quality mortgage credit, ” said John Taylor, president & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
“The decision by some banks to not follow the FHA’s policy is cutting qualified borrowers off from accessing credit, and in doing so, causing harm to their ability to prosper, build wealth and for our economy to grow. And this decision is arbitrary, because the loans are 100% guaranteed, whether the borrower’s credit score is 580 or 780. That means the loans with lower credit scores don’t pose additional risk to the company, so there’s no legitimate business defense for this across-the-board practice. A lender is only at risk if they fraudulently or improperly originated the loan, against FHA’s underwriting criteria. As is the case across the secondary market, in that situation, the lender can be forced to buy back the bad loan,” said Taylor.
NCRC Calls For Federal Investigation Into Lenders’ Read More »
An investigation by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) discovered that a majority of the top 50 FHA lenders have instituted policies that limit access to credit to working families in low- and moderate-income communities, and in communities of color, the very same communities that have been most harmed by the greed and malfeasance of
NCRC Files “Landmark” Fair Housing Complaints Read More »
Impact from Foreclosure Crisis Expanding, Churches Feeling the Pain As Thanksgiving Comes Washington, DC – Dozens of faith leaders today joined Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., in calling for congressional action to address the foreclosure crisis and to strengthen and enforce the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), in order to stabilize communities nationwide that have been
Organization Praises Web Portal as Complete Solution for Submitting Loan Modification Applications (WASHINGTON, DC) – HOPE LoanPort™ announced today that the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), an association of more than 600 community-based organizations, is endorsing its web-based loan modification portal. Both the NCRC and many of its members are already using the groundbreaking new
NCRC Partners with HOPE LoanPort™ to Assist Homeowners Read More »
NCRC Urges Fed To Stimulate Economy By Demanding Principal Reductions On Its Loans Worth $1.1 Trillion Taylor Says Federal Government Has Power, Authority to Obtain Reductions on Majority of Mortgage Market Washington, DC – In its efforts to stimulate the economy, the Federal Reserve should demand that banks reduce the principal balances on $1.1 trillion
NCRC Urges Fed To Stimulate Economy By Demanding Principal Reductions Read More »
Washington, DC — John Taylor, president & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, issued this statement today in response to the Administration’s probe of mortgage servicers: “It was heartening to hear that the Obama Administration is investigating whether servicers are doing all they can to help homeowners avoid foreclosures, but their probe must include the abusive lending practices that led to the financial chaos that shattered our economy. The Administration should move quickly on the question of whether banks are doing what they must do and should do under housing laws to help borrowers because stemming foreclosures is key to ending the economic downturn. Foreclosures are the bane of our economic recovery, and we fail to see how a temporary national freeze will hurt the economy more than the foreclosures do. Nobody wants to freeze foreclosures on abandoned homes. And a foreclosure freeze gives us all the chance to counsel homeowners, work with lenders and servicers to fix the servicing pipeline, and keep responsible homeowners in their homes.
Federal Housing Probe On Target But Should Examine Loan Modifications Read More »
Rubber stamp foreclosures continue pattern of disrespect for consumers’ rights and legal process, creating moral hazard for financial services industry
Washington, DC – In a letter to President Obama on Friday, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition joined dozens of other consumer and civil rights
groups in a call for a temporary national moratorium on foreclosures, until an investigation can be completed to determine the extent to which consumers’ rights have been violated by servicers and lenders. NCRC also called on Congress and the Administration to pursue non-voluntary measures to resolve the foreclosure crisis.
“The rights of consumers have been treated as an afterthought by the financial industry,” said John Taylor, president & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “Allowing the industry to rubber stamp foreclosures, and continue with sloppy, extralegal practices promotes a ‘moral hazard’ that encourages abusive behavior. Not intervening to investigate and ensure that consumers are adequately protected in the foreclosure process sends a message that mortgage lending and servicing continues to be the Wild West, wherein the industry is free to do what they want, without consideration for the borrower.”
“We need to end the voluntary reliance on the industry to do the right thing with respect to homeowners. Three years of following this approach on the foreclosure crisis has largely failed. Congress and the Administration should take this opportunity to finally put in place something that puts an end to unnecessary foreclosures, rather than delaying them,” said Taylor.
NCRC Supports Temporary National Moratorium on Foreclosures Read More »
Washington, DC – With the strong backing of House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, legislation to expand the lending requirements of the Community 
Reinvestment Act (CRA) to Wall Street was introduced yesterday. Such an expansion has the potential to spur significant job creation by leveraging hundreds of billions of dollars in private investments in small businesses and communities, without spending tax dollars, said John Taylor, CEO and President of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which worked closely with Frank in writing the bill. A section-by-section analysis of the bill is available at www.ncrc.org.
Bill To Expand CRA to Wall Street Introduced Read More »
Washington, DC–On Friday, September 24th, NCRC will testify before Federal Reserve Board on making critical improvements to HMDA data, so that lenders can be held accountable for the types of loans they are issuing to communities.
“We are in an era of some of the most complicated mortgage products to-date and given the strain that bad mortgage loans have put on our economy, lenders should be examined with a microscope now more than ever. In the era of reckless and corrupt lending, it is crucial that HMDA actually does what it was enacted to do, which is identify discriminatory lending patterns and determine if financial institutions are meeting local housing needs,” said John Taylor, president and CEO of NCRC, in reaction to the Federal Reserve’s 2009 HMDA data report.
The recently enacted Dodd-Frank bill mandates significant improvements to HMDA data. NCRC calls upon the Federal Reserve Board and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to expeditiously implement these improvements. In today’s release, the Federal Reserve Board states that the current HMDA data lacks information on credit scores, property values, and other factors necessary to fully account for disparities in racial access to affordable loans.
Improving HMDA Data can be the Answer to Averting another Foreclosure Epidemic Read More »
NCRC Urges Obama Administration To Mandate Loan Principal Reductions By Lenders & Ignore Calls For A “Do Nothing” Approach On Housing Washington, DC — National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) president & CEO John Taylor today urged the Obama Administration to ignore calls by some housing experts to “do nothing” on housing recovery. Instead, Taylor said
NCRC Urges Obama Administration To Mandate Loan Principal Reductions Read More »
NCRC frequently provides expert commentary on national television, including ABC’s Nightline, Bloomberg, the CBS Evening News, CNBC, CNN, CSPAN, NBC’s Dateline and Fox News. NCRC research and policy papers have been cited in hundreds of newspapers in the US including in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, the Chicago
Top Press Mentions Read More »
Hundreds of NCRC members expected to comment and testify before bank regulators this summer Atlanta, GA – Today, eight members of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition testified before the bank regulatory agencies regarding ways to improve the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to leverage hundreds of billions of dollars more in private investments for job creation
Community Organizations Weigh in on the Community Reinvestment Act Read More »
Regulators Must Fulfill Spirit and Intent of Bill
Washington, DC – Today, John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), will join President Obama for the signing ceremony of the financial reform bill. Taylor made this statement prior to the ceremony:
“Today’s signing of the financial reform legislation by President Obama marks the beginning of a renewed effort by the White House, Congress, regulators and by community and consumer groups like NCRC to hold Wall Street and the banks accountable to taxpayers, who bailed them out after a decade of reckless and greedy financial practices, designed solely to line their pockets. These practices led to an economic crisis unlike anything we have experienced as Americans since the Great Depression.”
John Taylor joins President Obama for Signing of Wall Street Reform Bill Read More »
Tepid Foreclosure Prevention Efforts Continue to Undermine Economic Recovery Permanent modifications disappoint, as cancellations trend substantially higher Washington DC- Today the Treasury Department and HUD released the latest numbers for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Nearly 400,000 homeowners have been granted a permanent modification under the program, which compares to over 5.3 million foreclosure
Tepid Foreclosure Prevention Efforts Read More »
