Monday, January 13, 2014

Looks Like Redlining to Me

Service Credit Union (Portsmouth, NH) currently serves people who live or work in 9 of New Hampshire's 10 counties.

The only county excluded from this $2.3 billion credit union's field of membership is Coos County, which is the poorest county in the state.

According to the Census Bureau, Coos County has a median household income of $41,087. This is 36.5 percent below the state's median household income of $64,664.

All of the other counties have a median household income of at least $50,000.

It seems like this credit union is more interested in serving the wealthier communities and counties in New Hampshire, while redlining the poorest county in the state.

Banks were accused of redlining in the 1970s and that is why banks are subject to the community reinvestment act (CRA). It seems the time has come to apply CRA to credit unions.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2014 at 1:44 PM

    I reluctantly agree. Even if they have a valid financially-viable reason for excluding this one county, it doesn't pass the smell test. However, to throw a blanket over all credit unions to employ CRA doesn't pass my logic test.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2014 at 2:44 PM

    Oh give me a break Keith. Coos county is the extreme northern panhandle of New hampshire. The largest county by almost double the land area with the fewest people by a factor of 50% below the next smallest. This credit union originated in the southeast corner of the state and appears to be gradually reaching out to serve most of the state. CUs don't need CRA because we serve the members who live in the communities where we gather deposits and we lend to the members from those same communities. That is not redlining. Banks are under CRA because many of them gathered deposits from low and moderate income communities and loaned the money to individuals, corporations and businesses outside the local areas. And, they didn't make mortgage loans on property in low income neighborhoods.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2014 at 4:05 PM

    Keith - maybe they left the 1 county for the Banks to rape, pillage and plunder. Coos County looks like a great location for a check cashing store. Shows the cu was not greedy - they did not take the entire state of NH only 90%

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