GCRC/Global Coalition for Community Reinvestment and Responsible Credit

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Responsible Credit UK Convention, London, 19th & 20th October 2010 The regulation of the UK’s credit markets is being radically redesigned. Government is currently consulting on its plans to create a new Consumer Protection and Markets Agency and the Financial Services Authority has set out its proposals to create a more responsible lending mortgage market. A longer term... [more...]

Prezado associado e amigo do Brasilcon, Tenho a satisfação de informar o lançamento da cartilha eletrônica "Crédito Responsável", que procura explicar, de modo claro e objetivo, sobre os riscos do superendividamento. O documento, que será encaminhado para todos os PROCONS e entidades civis de defesa do consumidor, pode ser incluído em páginas da internet pelos... [more...]

Both Shelter and the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) are calling for the Government not to reduce the rate at which Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) payments are made. SMI is currently paid to people in receipt of Income Support or Income based Jobseekers Allowance at a rate of 6.08%, but the Budget announced that Government plans to reduce this to a market average... [more...]

The International Monetary Fund has set out further details of its preferred mechanisms to ensure the financial sector makes a ‘fair and substantial contribution’ to cover the likely costs of any future crises and to general tax revenues. In its final report on the issue, which will now go forward for decision by the G-20, the IMF highlights that the as yet unrecovered... [more...]

ECRC global partner NCRC has released its comments on the new Financial Regulatory Reform Bill which the Conference Committee has passed today. Below are the press releases. Financial Regulatory Reform Bill Passed by the Conference Committee Washington, DC- Early this morning, 28th June 2010, the Conference Committee passed the Financial Regulatory Reform Bill. John... [more...]

New law aims to put clamp on mortgage exit fees The Age The new consumer credit law in place from Thursday will give the Securities Commission will be given teeth to declare void so-called "unfair" or "unconscionable" exit fees that do not relate to the costs banks actually incur in closing accounts. ---- ASIC updates credit licence guidance International Business Times... [more...]

The Declaration We, as European elected officials in charge of regulating financial markets and banks, can see every day the pressure exerted by the financial and banking industry to influence the laws governing it. There is nothing extraordinary if these companies make their point of view known and have discussions on a regular basis with legislators. But it seems to us... [more...]

Have Banks gone too far with their 2008 Directive? ECRC has accompanied the battle around the new Consumer Credit Directive 2008/48/EC. There is no question that consumer protection in general lost this battle when the 2002 draft was totally withdrawn and replaced by the neo-liberal information Directive which instead of bread and butter for debtors in consumer credit... [more...]

Finforum 2010 ZPS Financial Forum: "Consumers in the Financial Crisis: Lessons Learned and Ways Forward" Thursday, 20th of May 2010, Ljubljana, Slovenia Draft Programme Wednesday, 19 May 18.30 Welcome drinks reception Thursday, 20 May 08.00 Registration opens. Tea and coffee 09.00 to 10.00 Welcome and introductory session 10.00 to 11.10 Plenary I: Financial Crisis... [more...]

news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/lenders-given-reform-choices-20100330-rauu.html Article from the Sydney Morning Herald on regulatory changes in Australia Lenders given reform choices March 30, 2010 AAP The federal government has flagged measures to weed out dodgy lenders before new consumer credit laws come into force. Credit providers will have to be licensed if... [more...]

Greece has introduced a new consumer bankruptcy code modelled after the German insolvency procedure but with a significant shorter good will period of 4 years (6 in Germany). Its outstanding innovation lies in the development of a network of debt advice offices in Greece. In its inauguration conference the Greek socialist ministry of economics had invited a representative... [more...]

Another „Research“ from the UK to defend its usurious Credit Practices – Stop it. Since a couple of years we observe so-called research in the UK, the EU Member State with the highest usurious credit rates in Europe, the most problematic banking community. The studies are designed to show that UK usury serves the poor. While the simple ideology that less regulation lets... [more...]

2009 International Forum on Legal Aid Taipei Taiwan Panel Discussion III Day 2 [14:00-15:10, 1/11/09] Poverty, Debt and Legal Aid in Japan Saya Oyama (Associate Professor, Kinjo Gakuin University Japan) ________________________________________________________________________________ Preface As an introduction to the issues of “Poverty, Debt, and Legal Aid in Japan”, I... [more...]

As the Grameen Trust enters China, this article tries to explain why microloans are still relatively underdeveloped – the reasons include: inadequate or overly restrictive government regulations (e.g. requirement that a formal bank must be the controlling shareholder in any village bank and that fact neither organization can operate outside its registered county), complex... [more...]

The two Nobel Prize winners Stiglitz and Sen together with Fitoussi have delivered their "Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress" to the French President Sarkozy, 2009 (www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr) Professor Joseph E. STIGLITZ, Chair, Columbia University; Professor Amartya SEN, Chair Adviser, Harvard University; Professor... [more...]

From the latest newsletter of the International Association of Consumer Law  November 2009, Vol. 2, issue 2 (www.iaclaw.org) edited by Christine Riefa, Brunel Law School, UK we learn about the efforts made in Australia to harmonise consumer credit law and introduce more effective elements, amove which follows the centralisation of consumer credit law in the US through the... [more...]

The Global Witness sees some good news in what the G20 have agreed do. Concerned with corruption, banks have a role to play in combating this, especially in developing countries. The previous report, Undue Diligence: How banks do business with corrupt regimes, detailed how major banks including Barclays, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Citibank were facilitating corruption through... [more...]

"Capping interest rates is not the way to stop irresponsible lending to people who can't afford the loan" microcredit activist Faisal Rahman tells the Guardian. In an Interview to the Guardian Faisal Rahman argues that continental anti-usury legislation is no way to cope with predatory lending. Instead he favours penal sanctions. This kind of interview is in line with... [more...]

At the occasion of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, the ECRC renews its call for banks ‘worth saving’ (which it issued at the previous London G20 Summit in April 2009) and reminds coalition partners of its critique of the more recent G20 Declaration “12 measures for a socially useful financial system” led by alternative banks. ----- [en français, voir ci-dessous] Global... [more...]

G20 Summit on Incentives, Investments and Institutions There has been an extensive discussion among members of the Coalition for Responsible Credit and Community Reinvestment concerning a paper promoted especially by INAISE, the organisation of alternative and ethical banks in Europe for the upcoming G20 summit. A number of Coalition members have already signed this... [more...]

Strengthening cooperation between judicial and police authorities in the EU The seminar is free of charge (no registration fee). Financial crimes are serious and growing threats in all EU Member States. For the past decades the European Union has given high priority to detecting, investigating and tackling this problem and to bringing offenders to justice. The... [more...]

Public Consultation on Responsible Lending and Borrowing in the EU August 10, 2009 1. Question 3 In your view, are there certain (categories of) credit products that are inherently unsuitable for sale to retail borrowers? In our Subprime Declaration from 30 June 2008 ECRC supported by many signatures from its coalition partners had already pointed to a number of... [more...]

CREDIT & SALAKIN TAIKYO, JAPAN National Coalition for Fair Consumer Credit Fighting for ending undue and unjust sufferings of debtors in Japan since 1978 www.cresara.net 6th fl. Nihon Bunka Kaikan, 2-chome 1-23 Kitahama, Chuo-ku, Osaka 541-0041 JAPAN WELCOME to CREST JAPAN CREDIT & SALAKIN TAIKYO JAPAN (CREST JAPAN) is a national coalition for fair consumer... [more...]

Consumer Bankruptcy Regimes in the US and Europe - Further effects and implications of the crisis (CEPS Working Document No. 318/July 2009 by Maria Gerhardt) ABSTRACT Consumer insolvency is a topic that has gained much prominence in the context of the financial crisis on both sides of the Atlantic. In countries such as the US and the UK, the number of bankruptcy filings... [more...]

Press release from DOOD blog website BARNARDO'S SLAMS PROVIDENT RATES OF 545% Wednesday, 29 July 2009 at 14:04 Barnardo's 'Breadline Britain' report, published yesterday, rightly slams Provident's 545% APR loans to some of Britain's poorest families as 'extortionate'. The report comes on the same day that Provident announced a rise in pre-tax profits in the first six... [more...]

A recent study by economists at the University of Chicago examined the effects of payday lenders being required to better explain the long-term financial cost of their loans. However, although providing a clear and tangible description of a loan's cost reduced the number of applicants choosing to take payday loans, this only applied to 10 percent of borrowers. This means... [more...]

The discount order form for this book is on the second page of the flyer attached below. CONSUMER CREDIT, DEBT AND BANKRUPTCY - COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES Edited by Johanna Niemi, Iain Ramsay and William C Whitford After a long period of prosperity and steady economic growth, the world's leading economies are now in crisis, and although there will be... [more...]

NEWS FROM THE STATES: The current global financial meltdown began with the collapse of the U.S. Subprime Mortgage Market, which continues to wreak havoc throughout that nation and the world. What really happened, and what is being done in response – by lawmakers and the Obama Administration, by bank regulators, and by civic leaders and hard-hit communities? More... [more...]

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN IRELAND Introduction Despite sustained economic growth and a consumer credit boom over fifteen odd years, successive Irish governments have failed to update and modernise the debt enforcement infrastructure in line with the more progressive systems in operation across most of the European Union. The focus instead has been to gradually increase the... [more...]

Less than half of the European Citizens have felt it necessary to vote. The new Parliament will if Eurosceptics from the UK, Bavaria, Austria and other states within the conservative parites are also counted, have an enormous amount of members which do not want a better Europe but no Europe at all.  To those who want a socially responsible Europe where different cultures... [more...]

The efforts of ECRC are part of a global coalition for responsible credit. Benoit Granger and John Taylor will be speaking on behalf of our coalition. In a few days, BRASILCON will be holding its conference on responsible credit. With the support of the Central Bank of Brazil it has thus received the support of the authorities that the issues we are dealing with within... [more...]

100 + DIVERSE NATIONAL AND STATE GROUPS SUPPORT DURBIN’S S. 500 BILL March 2, 2009 Dear Senator Durbin: We applaud you for introducing S.500 that would stop a wide range of lending abuses by capping interest rates for consumer credit at 36 percent annually. Cleaning up the finance industry is essential to a sustainable economic recovery. The “Protecting Consumers from... [more...]

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition/NCRC – in alliance with the Global Coalition for Responsible Credit/GCRC, including partner organizations and citizen leaders in the UK, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa – today issued a call for the forthcoming meeting of the G20 to commit itself to the creation of a financial system that is “worth... [more...]

The arguments to let positive data enter are more negative ones since allowing only negative data the picture will get wrong. A customer who defaults in a small credit will have this information available while the fact that he serviced a big loan for years without problems may not be considered. This is certainly a big disadvantage. On the other hand removing all barriers... [more...]

Door to consumer credit open wide 08:08' 10/02/2009 (GMT+7) VietNamNet Bridge – Right after the State Bank of Vietnam removed the ceiling interest rate on consumer credit, commercial banks rushed to launch several thousand billion VND of new consumer credit programmes onto the market. However, the interest rates of the loans are ‘unnattractive’ to many borrowers. The... [more...]

12th International Conference on Consumer Law Organised by NALSAR in association with the International Association of Consumer Law Hyderabad , 25-27 February 2009 PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME Wednesday 25th February 2008 Excerpt of topics regarding financial services and consumer credit Vasundhra Ravi & Geetanjali Dhankhar, Post-Graduate students, NALSAR (India), Development... [more...]

Below is an article analyzing the what-ifs of Royal Bank of Scotland's U.S. subsidiaries Charter One and Citizens Banks being sold off, now that the UK government owns more then half of RBS. While listing the big banks which probably won't make it bid, it hypes Capital One, Morgan Stanley, Suntrust and Regions, saying that the last two might use their US government TARP... [more...]

Hosted by NALSAR, the conference held from 25-27 Feb 2009 in Hyderabad, is especially designed for consumer law experts and has an eminent panel of speakers planned. We hope to gather stakeholders from the world over and continue to discuss our Principles of Responsible Credit! ----- 12TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONSUMER LAW HYDERABAD 25-27 FEBRUARY 2009 The 12th... [more...]

ECRC and US partner NCRC are happy to have the ‘London Declaration’ available in an increasing number of languages. Thanks to BRASILCON, Brazilian Institute of Policy and Consumers Law, these now exist in Portuguese too. We look forward to the reaction that the Brazilian Public Authorities will have when the London Declaration and the ECRC Principles of Responsible Credit... [more...]

IN THESE HARD TIMES, EASY CREDIT COMES BACK TO HAUNT CARD USER (Live Mint Money Matters, Krittivas Mukherjee / Reuters) New Delhi: Credit is a devil that dances in empty pockets,” was the advice P.V. Rajiv’s father gave him when the young salesman swiped his new credit card for the first time to buy an expensive watch he could hardly afford. Swiping debt: A petrol pump... [more...]

In this short piece, we describe the process by which Japan came to regulate interest rates and to require that lenders not lend too much to any borrower. We welcome any comment. [more...]

SUB-PRIME MORTGAGES - FANNIE, FREDDIE RIDE FORECLOSURE FREEZE TIDE (BY SCOTT SABATINI, Legal News Line) WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)--As Capitol Hill remains under siege from all sides of America's faltering economy, pressure to stem the tide of foreclosures continued to make inroads as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became the latest to join the foreclosure freeze movement. ... [more...]

Friends of the Earth and BankTrack show in their report that China’s “Green Credit Policy” will make a difference. In the current economic climate, where banks are themselves relying on external funds from the public purse, is it possible to apply a similar set of regulation to China’s but aimed at controlling the “responsible credit” impact of the bank’s consumer lending... [more...]

NEWS RELEASE November 19, 2008, Contact: Robert M. Garsson (202) 874-5770 COMPTROLLER DUGAN SAYS CRA NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SUBPRIME LENDING ABUSES BALTIMORE — Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan said he categorically disagrees with suggestions that the Community Reinvestment Act is partly responsible for the ongoing credit crisis. “CRA is not the culprit behind... [more...]

Udo Reifner, Hamburg "Change" – Financial Services and the Credit Crisis Introduction to the 8th International Responsible Credit Conference London 2008: “Global banking in crisis! Now is the time for Responsible Credit” 13/14 November 2008 – New Connaught Rooms, London Two days before the leaders of the worlds' most... [more...]

ECRC’s South African partner You and Your Money, took part in our international conference in London. General Director, Johann Magerman, is grateful to have attended the conference and says the experience proved to be a rich and rewarding one, as one was able to connect with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Johann will be one of several international partners... [more...]

Madrid, November 6 2008 BankTrack today released "Bank to the Future: El Escorial Statement on Banks and the Financial Crisis" at a press conference in Madrid. The statement was drafted at BankTrack's annual strategy meeting, held in El Escorial de San Lorenzo earlier this week. It contains BankTracks´ current position on what is needed to deal with the unfolding... [more...]

The conference was a success and the report (Franco-Anglo) is available as an attachment below. The 7th Internationale Meeting on Ethics, Finance & Responsibility was hold on the 3rd and 4th of October 2008, in Geneva. WORKSHOPS: Emilio Fontela Lecture: Economics and the Common Good - Protestants, Catholics and Money - Was Hippocrates a Financier? Finance and Medicine -... [more...]

GM'S FINANCE ARM SEEKS TO BECOME BANK CHICAGO: The troubled financial arm of auto giant General Motors is seeking to become a federally regulated bank holding company in a move which wou ld give it access to a share of a 700 billion dollar bailout package, GMAC said Thursday. GMAC said it intends to launch a private offer to "exchange a significant amount of its... [more...]

AT UN, STIGLITZ SLAMS CHASE FOR MISUSE OF BAILOUT, FEDERAL RESERVE FOR PREDATORY LENDING (By Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press) UNITED NATIONS, October 30 -- The $700 billion bank bailout should not be used for mergers to increase market share, economist Joseph Stiglitz told the Press on Thursday. Following a UN panel discussion about the global financial crisis,... [more...]