Bill Bynum, CEO of the 28,000-member, $169 million Hope Community Credit Union,  will help welcome Director Richard Cordray and other officials from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to Mississippi on Wednesday.

The meeting – at which the bureau seeks to learn more about the financial challenges facing residents of the Delta and the rural South – is set for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT in the Social Science Building Auditorium at Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, Miss.

Hope Community is headquartered in Jackson, Miss., and has branches in four Mississippi Delta states.  Bynum is also vice chairman of the CFPB's Consumer Advisory Board.

“It is significant that Director Cordray chose to hold this meeting in Mississippi. The financial environment in the Mid-South is unique, particularly with regard to the challenges that confront our rural, elderly, low-income and minority residents,” Bynum said in an announcement.

According to the Mississippi Economic Policy Center, the rates Mississippians pay for small dollar loans are among the highest in the Southeast. Also, the percentage of unbanked and underbanked residents in the state is among the highest in the country, Bynum added.