BROCKTON, Mass. – The $1.4 billion HarborOne Credit Union has announced it will form what it has dubbed a "Multicultural Banking Center" to fight predatory lending among lower income and immigrant communities.
Credit union President/CEO James Blake said HarborOne decided to start the center to help combat the growing foreclosure crisis. Nationally, there were 1.2 million foreclosure filings in 2006, a 42% increase over 2005. That represented a rate of one foreclosure for every 92 U.S. households, the CU said.
The effort, believed to be one of the first of its kind in the nation, will help people avoid mortgage gimmicks that have helped fuel the foreclosure crisis, which has severely impacted the Brockton area. The center will also help move people into mainstream banking products and away from payday lending, expensive check cashing services, unscrupulous pawnshop owners and rent-to-own vendors, the CU said.
"We are very concerned about the reliance of these individuals upon highly expensive, abusive and often predatory practices," Blake said in announcing the effort. "Low-income residents, minorities and immigrants have fallen prey to these predators because of lack of information and lack of trust in the traditional financial system."
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