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Full-Text Articles in Banking and Finance Law

Fair Lending 2.0: A Borrower-Based Solution To Discrimination In Mortgage Lending, Jared Ruiz Bybee Sep 2011

Fair Lending 2.0: A Borrower-Based Solution To Discrimination In Mortgage Lending, Jared Ruiz Bybee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Fair lending laws promise that borrowers with similar credit profiles will receive similar loan products-regardless of their race. Yet, studies reveal that black and Latino borrowers consistently receive loan products that are inferior to those of white borrowers with similar credit characteristics. Despite frequent amendments since their passage during the Civil Rights Era, the Fair Lending Laws that opened doors for minority borrowers are unable to root out the subtle discrimination that persists in today's mortgage lending market. These traditional Fair Lending Laws are built on an outdated framework that focuses exclusively on punishing lenders and righting past wrongs. This …


Addressing Gaps In The Dodd-Frank Act: Directors' Risk Management Oversight Obligations, Kristin N. Johnson Sep 2011

Addressing Gaps In The Dodd-Frank Act: Directors' Risk Management Oversight Obligations, Kristin N. Johnson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In the years leading to the recent financial crisis, finance theorists introduced innovative methods, including quantitative financial models and derivative instruments, to measure and mitigate risk exposure. During the financial crisis, financial institutions facing insolvency revealed pervasive misunderstandings, misapplications, and mistaken assumptions regarding these complex risk management methods. As losses in financial markets escalated and caused liquidity and solvency crises, commentators sharply criticized directors and executives at large financial institutions for their risk management decisions. By adopting the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Congress directly and indirectly addresses certain risk management oversight concerns at large, complex financial …


Toward Transatlantic Convergence In Financial Regulation, Hwa-Jin Kim May 2011

Toward Transatlantic Convergence In Financial Regulation, Hwa-Jin Kim

Law & Economics Working Papers

This Article reviews the historical background of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 along with the developments in the markets that led to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. It analyzes the discussions on the Volcker Rule in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 from a comparative perspective. It shows how the reform in the United States may impact financial institutions and markets in other jurisdictions. Germany and Switzerland, where universal banking is the hallmark of the financial services industry, are the primary jurisdictions of interest. After taking a historical and political look at the regulation of …


Preferences For Banking And Payment Services Among Low- And Moderate-Income Households, Michael S. Barr, Jane Dokko, Eleanor Feit May 2011

Preferences For Banking And Payment Services Among Low- And Moderate-Income Households, Michael S. Barr, Jane Dokko, Eleanor Feit

Law & Economics Working Papers

This paper characterizes the features of an account-based payment card – including bank debit cards, prepaid debit cards, and payroll cards – that elicit a high take-rate among low- and moderate-income (LMI) households, particularly those without bank accounts. We apply marketing research techniques, specifically choice modeling, to identify the design of a specific financial services product for LMI households, who often face difficulties maintaining standard bank accounts but need banking services. After monthly cost, we find that, on average, non-monetary features of a payment card, such as the availability of federal protection and the type of card, are factors LMI …


Unclaimed Financial Assets And The Promotion Of Microfinance, Andrew W. Hartlage Apr 2011

Unclaimed Financial Assets And The Promotion Of Microfinance, Andrew W. Hartlage

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

State governments can effectively promote domestic entrepreneurship in low-income communities and simultaneously fulfill their duties as conservator s of unclaimed property, by lending unclai med financial assets-in-trust at preferential interest rates to in-state microfinance providers. This plan presents an alternative to charitable contributions, though it does not resolve the tension between for-profit and not-for-profit microfinance providers. Such a scheme could be a significant funding source for many microfinance operations in the United States today. Even a small portion of the yearly intake of unclaimed assets would be substantial enough to support fully most microfinance loan portfolios. Also, reinvestment of unclaimed …


Shifting Title And Risk: Islamic Project Finance With Western Partners, Alan J. Alexander Apr 2011

Shifting Title And Risk: Islamic Project Finance With Western Partners, Alan J. Alexander

Michigan Journal of International Law

Project finance exemplifies modern globalized business transactions in that a single project can bring together numerous participants from across the world, and in that sense it is a truly international undertaking. A general definition of project finance is "the financing of an economic unit in which the lenders look initially to the cash flows from operation of that economic unit for repayment of the project loan and to those cash flows and other assets comprising the economic unit as collateral for the loan." The "economic unit" is often referred to as a Special Project Vehicle (SPV). Project finance is commonly …


Review Of Seeds Of Destruction: Why The Path To Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, And How To Reclaim American Prosperity, Michael S. Barr Jan 2011

Review Of Seeds Of Destruction: Why The Path To Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, And How To Reclaim American Prosperity, Michael S. Barr

Reviews

The United States has just gone through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Our financial system came to brink of collapse, saved only by a massive intervention by the federal government. Although officially the Great Recession is now over, high unemployment and slow growth persist. Deficits that were ballooning in the 2000s with the weight of tax cuts, increased health care expenditures, and defense spending related to Iraq and Afghanistan, even before the financial crisis, have continued to climb, as lower tax receipts, automatic stabilizers, and fiscal stimulus kicked into gear.


A Vision For Scaling Microfinance: More Than Dollars And Smarts, Deborah Burand Jan 2011

A Vision For Scaling Microfinance: More Than Dollars And Smarts, Deborah Burand

Book Chapters

The following is a stock-taking of some of the key initiatives that have taken place to date in the world of microfinance at building an international financial architecture that attracts and retains flows of commercial capital to microfinance. It also is a call to those of us in the microfinance world to do much, much more.


Ability To Pay, John A. E. Pottow Jan 2011

Ability To Pay, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

The landmark Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 ("Dodd-Frank") transforms the regulation of consumer credit in the United States. Many of its changes have been high-profile, attracting considerable media and scholarly attention, most notably the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB"). Even specific consumer reforms, such as a so-called "plain vanilla" proposal, drew hot debate and lobbying firepower. But when the dust settled, one profoundly transformative innovation that did not garner the same outrage as plain vanilla or the CFPB did get into the law: imposing upon lenders a duty to assure a borrower's ability to repay. Ensuring a borrower's …