Our Research

War Room Strategy Session Presentation

This powerpoint provides an overview of how the financial crisis and its impact on communities of color, with statistics describing each trend.   The presentation includes Greenlining's approaches for addressing the crisis, successes attained through each approach,  and the challenges that we face.

Annual Report on Diversity on Bank Boards of Directors

Annual report examines diversity on the boards of the largest financial institutions in the United States. Findings indicate that the top banks vary widely in their commitment to diversity at the top leadership level. Citibank and Wells Fargo have the most diverse boards, while JP Morgan and State Street have the least diverse boards.

Annual Report on Homelending to Communities of Color in California (FY 2007).

FISCAL YEAR 2007 UPDATE.  The credit crunch has hit communities of color hardest, particularly lower-income communities of color.  The mortgage industry as a whole originated 39.3% less loans to Latinos this fiscal year, and 34.1% less loans to African Americans.  The most dramatic decrease has been among lower-income African American borrowers, who received 72.4% less loans this year than last year.  These changes, combined with the disproportionate loss of wealth in communities of color due to foreclosures, are likely to widen the homeownership gap even further.

Annual Report on Mortgage Lending to Communities of Color in California

Issue Brief

Annual Report on Lending to Minority-Owned Small Businesses

FISCAL YEAR 2008 UPDATE.  This report card provides data for the best and the worst banks of 2008 in Small Business Administration (SBA) lending to minority-owned small businesses.  The number of SBA loans has decreased by 30.3% nationally, including a 39.3% decline in California, due chiefly to the contraction in available credit across the economy.  However, the SBA’s inability to maintain the competitiveness of its loan products compared to proprietary bank loans may have also contributed to the decline in SBA lending.  Nonetheless, the SBA shows promise for improvement under the Obama Administration.

Issue Brief| Press Release

2008 Bank Board Diversity Report

For the fourth consecutive year, Greenlining is issuing its major bank board of directors diversity study.  It is a good practice, consistent with safety and soundness, for a bank’s board of directors to reflect the diversity of the populations it serves and hopes to serve. In the United States there’s an estimated 110 million minorities (approximately 35% of population) and it is estimated that by 2050 more than 50% of the nation’s population will be minorities.

Financial Institutions May Soon be Required to Report Business Loans by Race, Ethnicity and Gender

The Greenlining Institute has been spearheading an effort to eliminate a 1973 anti-redlining Federal Reserve regulation that has inadvertently been used to cover up discrimination in small business lending.  Regulation B, also known as the Equal Credit Opportunity Act made it “…unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant...on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, or age (provided the applicant has the capacity to contract); because all or part of the applicant’s income derives from any public assistance program....” (15 USC §1691(a))  However, the Reg. B also prevents financial institutions from collecting information on the race, ethnicity, and gender of their applicants and borrowers, making it impossible for the public to ascertain whether there is any discrimination.

Is the SBA Losing it's Mission? Lending to Minorities: Not Fortune 1000 Corporations

FISCAL YEAR 2007 UPDATE.  The number of minority-owned businesses in the US is growing at two to three times the national average, yet the proportion of Small Business Association loans going to minority entrepreneurs has remained constant at about one-third of all loans.  In this report card , we rank the banks on their lending performance to minority-owned small businesses.  We also provide an update on the SBA under the Bush Administration, as well as recent problems that have undermined the agency's credibility and effectiveness.

Issue Brief  |  Press Release

A Tenuous Future for Latino Homeownership in California

Greenlining annually produces two report cards ranking the top ten banks in California in terms of their prime-rate home loan lending performance to California’s Latino and African American homebuyers.  We do not count a bank’s subprime loan originations in our analysis.  Our results show that although Latinos represent 36% of California’s population, they received only 24% of prime-rate home loans.  African Americans, at 6% of the population, received only 3.66% of all prime-rate home loans originated in California in fiscal year 2006.  In contrast, non-Hispanic Whites, at 46% of the population, receive 66% of all home loans.  On average, California’s top ten banks lend to minorities at rates that fall below the average for California’s mortgage industry.  Greenlining recommends that the state’s largest banks take a more proactive stance toward lending to underserved populations in order to move towards closing the minority homeownership gap.

A Tenuous Future for African American Homeownership in California

Greenlining annually produces two report cards ranking the top ten banks in California in terms of their prime-rate home loan lending performance to California’s Latino and African American homebuyers.  We do not count a bank’s subprime loan originations in our analysis.  Our results show that although Latinos represent 36% of California’s population, they received only 24% of prime-rate home loans.  African Americans, at 6% of the population, received only 3.66% of all prime-rate home loans originated in California in fiscal year 2006.  In contrast, non-Hispanic Whites, at 46% of the population, receive 66% of all home loans.  On average, California’s top ten banks lend to minorities at rates that fall below the average for California’s mortgage industry.  Greenlining recommends that the state’s largest banks take a more proactive stance toward lending to underserved populations in order to move towards closing the minority homeownership gap.

Is the SBA Losing it's Mission? Lending to Minorities: Not Fortune 1000 Corporations

FISCAL YEAR 2006 REPORT.  The number of minority-owned businesses in the US is growing at two to three times the national average, yet the proportion of Small Business Association loans going to minority entrepreneurs has remained constant at about one-third of all loans.  In this report card, we rank the banks on their lending performance to minority-owned small businesses.  We also provide an update on the SBA under the Bush Administration, as well as recent problems that have undermined the agency’s credibility and effectiveness.

Issue Brief  Press Release  Corrections

Bank Board Diversity

Four of the eight largest banks have no Latinos on their boards. Eighty percent of the top twenty banks have only one African American on their boards. Only 1 out of 292 board members is an Asian American. Only one bank has an Asian American, African American, and a Latino on its board.

African American Homelending Report

Only 39 percent of African Americans in California live in a home that they own, compared to nearly 50 percent for African Americans in the rest of the nation. This report finds that the seven major lenders studied originated only 48 home loans to very low income African Americans in California.