Marva Williams, Woodstock Institute Senior Vice
President before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs discussing the development of affordable transaction
accounts to help lower income people access the financial
mainstream.
Testimony of Geoff Smith, Woodstock Institute
research associate, to the Illinois Office of Banks and Real Estate on
several proposed changes. Woodstock opposes changes to the
regulation of high risk loans because the changes do not add any
substantive protections. Woodstock supports the proposed
licensing changes and the increase in the net worth requirements for
mortgage lenders and brokers.
Marva Williams, Woodstock Institute Senior Vice President, comments in favor of H.B. 1100 creating the Illinois Payday Loan Reform Act and discusses the five key consumer protections included in the bill.
Testimony of Marva Williams, Woodstock Institute Senior Vice President requesting conditional approval of the H& R Block application to become a de novo thrift regulated by the OTS. Approval should only be granted if H&R Block makes a commitment to affirmatively address the lending patterns of H&R Block's subprime affiliate, Option One, commit to reducing the impact of refund anticipation loans on recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and several other issues.
Testimony before the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on OTS’s actions to weaken CRA. Comments offered suggestions to promote improvements to CRA that would increase access to lending, investments, and services in low- and moderate-income markets such as the requiring the continued reporting of small business lending data for mid-sized banks and thrifts. They also requested that the OTS collect data on new retail accounts opened for low- and moderate-income households; and promoting investment in declining and underserved rural markets.
