CRA-NC Campaigns

Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina

Organizing for Economic Justice

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Campaigns

Stop H&R Block’s Plan to Open Bank and Over Charge More Consumers!

The Office of Thrift Supervision announced H&R Block’s approval for a savings bank charter on March 15, the same day New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued H&R Block for fraudulent marketing Express IRA’s. 85% of Express IRA customers lost money. Once again, the Bush Administration has abandoned consumers in favor of big corporations. H&R Block repeatedly used the company’s Express IRA program to justify the need for a Block bank. New York State’s lawsuit makes it clear that H&R Block can not be allowed to expand its abusive practices. Send a letter via e-mail asking the OTS to reverse its decision!

Stop the MBNA-Bank of America Merger - Consumer Interests Before Corporate Interests!

MBNA and Bank of America (BofA) have announced plans to merge. The $35 billion deal would create a combined financial giant with 20% of the U.S. credit card market. Both companies have a track record of lending practices that harm consumers. On September 27, the Delaware State Bank Commissioner will hold a public hearing in Wilmington, Delaware on the proposed merger. Send a letter via e-mail asking the Commissioner to oppose this merger, which is bad for consumers and harmful to the democratic and economic health of our country!

Stacking Up The Cards: How MBNA & BofA Measure Up to Consumer Bill of Rights for Credit Cards (a CRA-NC Report)

Protect Our Troops from Payday Loan Sharks!

A bipartisan amendment has been introduced in the US Senate that would cap the annual percentage interest rates which can be charged for loans made to military personnel and their spouses at 36%. The Dole-Durbin-Nelson Amendment (SA 1523) to the fiscal year 2006 military appropriations bill S. 1042 is backed by the Military Coalition, an umbrella group of 30 military associations. Send a letter via e-mail to Sen. Richard Burr, asking him to support this amendment. Let Sen. Burr know SA 1523 will protect military families from payday loan ripoffs.

Help Stop the Payday Loan Debt Trap!

SB 947 - Latest News & Updates

Payday lending has been banned in North Carolina since 2001. Senate Bill 947 (SB 947), supported by the payday industry, would once again legalize the payday loan debt trap in North Carolina. SB 947 would allow unlimited flipping of payday loans, 500% APR loans, and loopholes that would enable payday lenders to ignore North Carolina law as well as federal regulations. Send a letter via e-mail to the N.C. Senate Commerce Committee, where the bill is under consideration. Let the committee leadership know that for the good of North Carolina communities, they must vote NO on SB 947 and keep our state free from payday loans.

During the 2005 session of the NC General Assembly, more than 1000 citizens signed letters against SB 947, and the bill failed to make it out of the Commerce Committee. Payday lenders may be back in the 2006 short session, and community members will be ready to oppose this bill again!

Strengthen Communities - Keep CRA Strong

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and Federal Reserve Board (FRB) are accepting public comment on their joint Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) exam proposal through May 10, 2005. This joint proposal is an improvement over a Fall, 2004 proposal from the FDIC to allow banks under their jurisdiction to design their own CRA exams, but serious issues remain. You can take action today to protect CRA by sending a comment letter via e-mail that urges regulators to strengthen this joint proposal and prevent the law from being watered down.

First Bank of Delaware CRA Exam

First Bank of Delaware, headquartered in Wilmington, is a shell operation disguised as a bank, set up to facilitate harmful payday lending activities. First Bank is currently facing a CRA exam given by the FDIC to test how well it is reinvesting in the community where it is located. Write a letter to the FDIC by March 31, 2005 and let them know First Bank of Delaware’s CRA performance deserves a failing grade.

After more than 250 Delaware citizens signed onto this campaign, and following pressure from the FDIC, First Bank of Delaware announced its exit from payday lending in February, 2006.

Get Well Soon, OTS

On February 28, 2005, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) issued a final rule implementing its latest proposal to weaken the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). CRA requires banks and savings & loans (S&L’s) to provide banking services to low and middle-income neighborhoods. The OTS’ CRA Streamlining Proposal will allow big S&L’s to design their own CRA exams, putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse.

Join us in sending the OTS a free, get-well-soon e-card. Let the OTS know you hope they get well soon, so the agency can return to serving the public, not the interests of big savings & loans.

OTS' CRA Streamlining Proposal

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) is accepting public comment through January 24, 2005 on proposed changes that would weaken how CRA is enforced, and now is the time for concerned citizens to speak out against this ill-conceived proposal.

OTS received 4,200 public comments on this issue, including more than 700 from community members contacted by CRA-NC, one sixth of all comments submitted. 4000, or 95%, were from community groups and citizens opposed to the proposal. Opponents included 28 members of Congress and 45 US Mayors. No elected officials sent comments in support.

SunTrust-CCB Merger

Now that SunTrust has bought Durham’s home bank, CCB, the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina has some questions: Will SunTrust shine in North Carolina? Or will it leave us cold in the dark shadows of neglect? Our question as reflected in the mural we commissioned to be placed outside CCB’s office in downtown Durham: Where is the love?

Do the Right Thing - Rescue Consumers from Payday Lending!

County Bank's Exit from Payday Loans - News Stories

FDIC Cease and Desist Order against County Bank

CRA-NC performs street theatre. Calling upon the Delaware Bankers Association and Banking Commissioner to “do right,” in May 2003, CRA-NC acted out the “Sorrows of Sweet Caroline,” a short play based on the silent film serial, “Perils of Pauline.” We called on Delaware Do-Right and the people of Delaware to rescue North Carolinians who are caught in a payday lending debt trap set by two Delaware banks, First Bank of Delaware and County Bank, which are partnering with payday lenders in North Carolina and nationwide.

In March, 2005, the FDIC filed a Cease & Desist Order against County Bank's payday lending activities. In November, 2005, the bank announced it was getting out of the payday lending business.


Financial Freedom Tour 2003 CRA-NC embarks on the Financial Freedom Tour. Along with 20 residents from rural North Carolina, CRA-NC engaged in a number of actions during a five-day trip in March, 2003. Together with New York groups, CRA-NC and Financial Freedom Tour participants held a protest outside the FDIC’s regional office in Manhattan to ask the FDIC to stop payday lending by the banks it regulates. In Delaware, while wearing oversized paper chains, we marched around County Bank, partner for Check ‘n Go and several other payday lenders in North Carolina. We marched around the branch seven times – six times in silence and the last time while singing – in order to bring down the walls. We then traveled to Washington, DC, where we met with our representatives in Congress and asked them to help us fight payday lending.	Community Activists Protest at County Bank - March, 2003

CRA-NC conducts media advocacy in Ohio. First Place Bank, a thrift in Warren, Ohio, became Check ‘n Go’s bank partner after Brickyard Bank received a cease and desist order from the FDIC. CRA-NC organized a letter-writing campaign to the Office of Thrift Supervision, and in December 2002, CRA-NC staff traveled to Ohio to mobilize local groups and gather footage of the bank and Check ‘n Go headquarters for its video, “Payday Lending – The Musical”. As a result of pressure from its federal regulator, the OTS, First Place Bank ended its payday lending activities in January 2003.

CRA-NC goes fishing. In October 2002, CRA-NC traveled to Washington, DC, to protest payday lending at the annual meeting of CFSA, the trade association. We brought our fishing poles and fished for loan sharks charging usury rates in front of the hotel. We also participated in a press conference with national consumer groups on Capitol Hill.

CRA-NC challenges payday lender Check ‘n Go’s attempt to buy a bank. If you’re having trouble renting a bank charter, why not try and buy one? Check ‘n Go made such an attempt in the summer of 2002, trying to buy Bank of Kenney, which is located in a town of less than 400 in Illinois, and become its own payday lending bank. CRA-NC led the regulatory challenge against the acquisition by submitting comment letters to the Federal Reserve and organizing other nonprofit groups to protest the acquisition.

CRA-NC publicizes the payday lending activities of Brickyard Bank to its local community. In July 2002, CRA-NC ran advertisements in the local Lincolnwood weekly newspaper about Brickyard Bank’s payday lending in North Carolina. Banks can’t have it both ways – they can’t promote themselves as friendly community banks while charging usurious interest rates in other states. The FDIC ordered Brickyard Bank to end its payday lending activities in September 2002.

CRA-NC mobilizes three city protest in collaboration with the Monsignor Egan Coalition for Payday Lending Reform and Coalition for Neighborhoods. On April 11, 2002, protesters in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Durham wore symbolic chains of debt to protest payday lender Check ‘n Go’s partnership with Brickyard Bank to make payday loans in North Carolina. The oversized paper checks binding the protesters noted the $84 million in loans that Check ‘n Go made to North Carolina residents in 2000.