Illinois Asset Building Group - Building Financially Strong Families and Communities

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Payday loans, instant tax refunds and a host of other businesses that cater to the working poor face major changes now that Congress has created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. However, work remains to be done in understanding the full nature of the “fringe” banking sector and its impact on low-income Americans and the economic collapse of 2008.

Gary Rivlin’s timely new book, Broke, USA, goes a long way in explaining that story from the perspective of the families that are enmeshed by the poverty industry and from some of the key figures who made that sector into the multi-billion dollar industry that exists today. He also traces the roots of the subprime meltdown to these same fringe businesses.

Please join the New America Foundation for a discussion with the author, and a riveting look at the past and future of both the world of alternative financial services, and the hard-working Americans that benefit from and are victimized by the industry.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010
12:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

New America Foundation
1899 L St NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036

Featured Speaker
Gary Rivlin
Author, Broke, USA

Discussant
Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini
Senior Policy Analyst, Asset Building Program
New America Foundation

Moderator
Reid Cramer
Director, Asset Building Program
New America Foundation

To RSVP for the event, click here.

For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net.

For media inquiries, contact Kate Brown at (202) 596-3365 or brown@newamerica.net.

Join the Assets Movement and Register for the 2010 Assets Learning Conference
September 22-23, Washington, D.C.

CFED will host its third biennial Assets Learning Conference, The Assets Movement at its Moment: Creating the Save and Invest Economy, on September 22-24, 2010 at the Marriot Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. This critical forum aims to map out new fundamentals in domestic and international practices, policies and research to help more individuals and families enter the financial mainstream. Assets Movement at Its Moment will bring together over 1,000 insightful and influential leaders in community practice, business, government, philanthropy and academia, providing attendees with a front row seat to the best and latest information on asset building.

For more information and registration details, click here.

The  distressing current financial situation for low-wealth people of color was the focus of panels and experts at the “Beyond Foreclosures: The Impact of the Financial Crisis on the Wealth Gap and Economic Opportunity,” hosted by the Woodstock Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on June 3.  Giving depth to this sobering issue, presenters spoke about the history of the racial wealth gap, the insufficient access to traditional banking services among low-income individuals, efforts to close the racial wealth gap, and state policy strategies aimed at building wealth in these communities. To read a further review of this event and the presentations made, visit the Woodstock website.

On March 31, 2010, the Chicago Alliance for Economic Inclusion of the FDIC held a General Meeting where IABG leaders Chris Giangreco from Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights and Karen Harris from the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law spoke about the need for mainstream financial institutions to offer alternative payday loans.

The Alliance for Economic Inclusion (AEI) is the FDIC’s national initiative to establish broad-based coalitions of financial institutions, community-based organizations and other partners in markets across the country to bring all unbanked and underserved populations into the financial mainstream. Angelisa M. Harris, the new Community Affairs Officer for the FDIC/AEI’s Chicago Region, pledged her agency’s support and commitment to continue to bring together interested parties to advance this issue.

A final report of the FDIC’s two-year pilot project to review affordable and responsible small-dollar loan programs in financial institutions will be available this June, according to an official from the FDIC.