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In the News
AFLEP News – May 2023
Friends of AFLEP, If you are tuned into the news you know that there have been many headlines about challenges in the banking industry, and our country’s financial system. What does this mean for lending in New Mexico? First, the regional and local banks are...
Revolving fund bills show gaps in NM financial capacity
by Angela Merkert, Executive Director, AFLEP — Whew! That 60 day session went by fast. Over 240 bills were passed of the more than 1000 filed. A number of those bills will support increased local economic prosperity. We are grateful for legislative support for...
What Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse Says About Banking And Community
By Oscar Perry Abello for NextCity | MARCH 13, 2023 Focusing on wealthy people and their startup investments is not a sign of good risk management at a bank. Banking has never been about avoiding risk. It’s about managing risk. For years, especially...
Will a public bank prove recession-proof for East Bay cities?
By KATIE LAUER for SiliconValley.com | February 26, 2023 Financial lending would focus on affordable housing, small business, green energy and municipal finance Image above: Trader Michael Gallucci works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange,...
Local Governments’ Vital Role in Getting Small Businesses the Funding They Need
Opinion by Ilana Preuss for Governing.com | February 14, 2023 Due to racial bias and other disparities, too often they aren’t “bankable” and struggle to obtain loans essential for their success. Some programs are leading the way in achieving more-equitable outcomes....
First New Black Bank In 20 Years Breaks The Mold For Raising Startup Capital
By Oscar Perry Abello for NextCity | February 14, 2023 Adelphi Bank in Columbus, which raised $20 million in startup capital, marks the country’s first new Black bank since 2003. Jordan Miller never thought it was in the cards for him to help start a new...
Life Link + Homewise Partnership Delivers More Than Financing
Partnership Delivers More Than Financing The Life Link in Santa Fe rents and owns multiple buildings where it delivers a multitude of services. When management wanted to create synergy around some of those services by housing them under one roof, the nonprofit...
In 16 Years, the Fed Has Approved 4,506 Bank Mergers and Denied One
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens for Wall Street On Parade | January 19, 2023 On Tuesday, Jerome Powell’s Federal Reserve once again thumbed its nose at President Biden’s antitrust directive regarding the creation of more mega banks through merger. This time...
Racial bias in L.A. home loans – City National Bank reaches $31m settlement with DOJ
By Michael Finnegan for Los Angeles Times | January 12, 2023 City National Bank has agreed to pay $31 million to settle a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit alleging racial bias in its home mortgage lending in Los Angeles County. The government’s complaint,...
A Policy Renaissance Is Needed for Rural America to Thrive
By Tony Pipa, senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. Opinion in New York Times | December 27, 2022 (Emphasis by AFLEP) In what has become a postelection tradition, there has been no shortage of analysis the past several...
Wells Fargo Rejected Half Its Black Applicants in Mortgage Refinancing Boom
March 10, 2022 | by Shawn Donnan, Ann Choi, Hannah Levitt and Christopher Cannon
When Mauise Ricard III paid a $560.43 application fee to Wells Fargo & Co. on Valentine’s Day in 2020 to refinance his mortgage on a four-bedroom brick colonial in a leafy suburb of Atlanta, he had every reason to expect an easy ride. The Microsoft Corp. engineer is married to a doctor and has a credit score north of 800, putting him in America’s credit elite. The loan officer at the bank even told him he was probably eligible for a fast-track appraisal.
SEED NM 2022 Symposium: Bob Mang on how business guilds can regenerate communities
SEED NM 2022 Symposium: Bob Mang on how business guilds can regenerate communities
Bob Mang, Re-Genesis Inc, Co-Founder (Retired) and AFLEP Board member, talks about rural economic development and how business guilds can regenerate communities.
Episode: Everyone deserves a public bank
“I had the good fortune to work on this initiative before Bernie kidnapped all my time. This is one of those no-brainer initiatives that only the 1% could oppose. It has the potential to save the state millions of dollars by vastly reducing the cost of its bonds to improve infrastructure funding. in a public bank, our state funds can be used to build our local economy and our local infrastructure.”
– Paul Gibson
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