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.

Geoff Smith and Sarah Duda

This report summarizes key foreclosure trends in the Chicago region for 2009 and updates Woodstock Institute reports and fact sheets released previously that illustrated key aspects of the foreclosure crisis, such as the spread of the crisis to suburban communities, the growing number of condominium foreclosures in Chicago, and the accumulated impact of the crisis on lower-income communities. The report includes detailed appendices with data for City of Chicago community areas and municipalities in the Chicago Six County Area, as well as DeKalb, Winnebago, and Kendall County.

This report found that much of South Suburban Cook County, McHenry County, and parts of Northwest Will County have gaps in foreclosure counseling services. Even in areas where several agencies actively provide foreclosure prevention counseling, four out of every five new foreclosure cases in 2008 did not access counseling services.

press release

Geoff Smith and Sarah Duda

This report analyzed Chicago region foreclosure auction and property transfer data and found that vacant, lender-owned properties are heavily concentrated in African American communities, go unsold longer, and incur greater losses to the lender than similar properties in predominantly white communities.

press release

This report, released by a national coalition of research, policy and advocacy organizations, examined mortgage lending patterns of banks in seven metropolitan areas and found a dramatic decrease in prime home purchase and refinance loans to communities of color. The report includes appendices for each metropolitan area and policy recommendations.

press release

Sarah Duda and Tom Feltner

Analysis of Circuit Court of Cook County filings by one large payday lending showing the shift from short-term loans, cover by Payday Loan Reform Act consumer protections, to longer-term installment loans not covered by the act. The report also looks at the debt collection process.

Geoff Smith and Sarah Duda

This report analyzed credit score data from a major national credit bureau in large Illinois zip codes and found significant disparities in credit characteristics between communities of color and predominantly white communities, as well as between major metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan areas. The report explains the importance of credit scores and how they are used, and recommends several policies to improve economic opportunity for people and communities impacted by low credit scores. Included is an appendix with demographics and credit score averages and distributions for large Illinois zip codes.

Geoff Smith, Sarah Duda, and Malcolm Bush

This report demonstrates that measuring how well a bank provides basic banking services to low-wealth consumers could be done using existing data. Using proprietary data collected from two bank branches located in low-wealth communities, it shows that the type of transaction level data, previously thought to be unavailable to regulators and costly to collect for financial institutions, is routinely collected by at least one large bank for marketing purposes.