Advocacy & Research

Payday Lending

Our success in creating access to wealth-building credit was being undone by predatory mortgage lending. To end this destructive practice, Reinvestment Partners has played a leadership role in fighting abusive corporate practices and promoting legislative and regulatory solutions at the state and national level.

Home Mortgage Lending

For most families, the decision to buy a home constitutes the most important financial decision of their life. Building equity through homeownership forces a family to sace. Ideally, homeownership helps a family build an important asset. This is why the ability to access safe mortgage products is so important.

Reinvestment Partners has worked to develop lending agreements with banks that have helped to secure $40 billion in capital for home mortgages for low-income and minority borrowers.

Manufactured Housing Reform

Advocating for better homes and neighborhoods

Reinvestment Partners is seeking to promote reinvestment in manufactured housing. This is a popular form of housing at affordable prices.

One in six North Carolinians lives in manufactured housing. There are issues - from lack of consumer protections to issues around asset building - but also plenty of opportunities.

Prepaid Cards and the Unbanked

Rapid Change in Basic Financial Services

While there has been plenty of attention surrounding TARP and HAMP, this year has witnessed extensive disruption in alternative financial services. The FDIC has estimated that almost 1 in 4 adults lacks access to basic bank services. We believe that this is a significant issue for financial justice.

Follow news on the unbanked at Bank Talk.

CRA Reform

The Community Reinvestment Act established an affirmative obligation for deposit insured lenders to serve their entire community. Reinvestment Partners was created to encourage lenders to invest in low income and minority communities utilizing the Community Reinvestment Act. Since 1986, the agency has catalyzed more than $40 billion of CRA commitments from large and small institutions in North Carolina and the Southeast. Bank commitments have come through friendly dialogue to hard fought challenges.

Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs)

A refund anticipation loan gives a tax filer his or her refund in 24 hours. It is a convenient service, as it would often take 5 to 7 days to get a refund for an e-filed return back through direct deposit. Unfortunately, the customer pays a very high price for that convenience. Frequently, consumers that apply for a RAL pay a series of additional "junk fees" that inflate the cost of their return. Those fees include fees for e-filing, for the use of "technology", and service bureau fees.