Indepth analysis of persistant problems in the field of community development. Woodstock's research reports contribute to the body of knowledge used by policymakers and community development practitioners.
Whitni Thomas and Jessica Brown, new economics foundation
Malcolm Bush and Geoff Smith, Woodstock Institute
This report seeks to reinvigorate the debate on bank disclosure in the UK and to create a better understanding of why it should be demanded of banks. This analysis is carried out through detailed case studies comparing Charter One Bank in Chicago in the US – where banks have disclosed local lending practices since 1975- with its parent company Royal Bank of Scotland in Manchester – to review the level of information available and the impact that this has.
To do this we evaluate the available information on small-business lending, bank branch availability and basic bank account opening in underserved areas of Manchester. Our analysis indicates that data on these factors is generally difficult to obtain, inconsistent, and in many cases incomplete.
Examines the court records of borrowers taken to court by two companies now offering payday installment loans. These loans, which were made before the Payday Loan Reform Act (PLRA), show the types of abuses and aggressive litigation borrowers can expect from these companies currently offering loans designed to circumvent the law.
This paper focuses the increase in high cost consumer and home mortgage debt as a dangerous threat to asset preservation and examines the Consumer Rescue Fund, innovative program administered by the National CommunityReinvestment Coalition (NCRC) that employs several strategies that enable consumers to preserve home ownership in the face of foreclosure by high cost lenders.
This alert analyses a variety of measures of debt to provide an overall sense of changes in U.S. household debt levels and the impact of those changes on different groups of families.
This analysis of Chicago area mortgage lending is intended as a companion piece to Woodstock Institute’s 2004 Chicago Area Community Lending Fact Book. It is meant to help put the mortgage lending data found in the Fact Book in a broader regional context. The first section analyzes regional trends in home purchase lending with a focus on changes in home buying patterns between 1999 and 2004. The second section focuses on patterns of high cost lending and foreclosures in the region.
