Furthermore, there are minor punctuation and word changes throughout thecorrected release, as well as an additional boilerplate titled, "Committeeon the Underserved of the President's Council."

Complete corrected text follows.

Operation HOPE Founder and U.S. President's Advisory Council on FinancialLiteracy Vice Chair John Hope Bryant Announces Growing Support forCommittee's Work at FDIC Forum on Mortgage Lending for Low- andModerate-Income Households

Council Committee-Approved "Best Practices" on The Future of ResponsibleSub-prime Mortgage Lending Shared With Forum Attendees; Full Council toBegin Its Formal Consideration of Newly Proposed "Guiding Principles"

LOS ANGELES, CA -- July 9, 2008 -- John Hope Bryant, Operation HOPE (HOPE)Founder and CEO, who also serves as Vice Chair of the U.S. President'sAdvisory Council on Financial Literacy (the Council), publicly announcedthe first banking and financial services industry endorsements of theCommittee-approved report, Recommendation of "Best Practices" for and inRespect to The Future of Responsible Sub-prime Mortgage Lending, as well askey statements of support for the overall work being undertaken by theCouncil Committee on the Underserved and its special initiative on "thefuture of responsible mortgage sub-prime lending." The announcements ofsupport were made public during his remarks at the "FDIC's Forum onMortgage Lending for Low- and Moderate-Income Households" in Arlington,Virginia on July 8, 2008.

Bryant announced at the Forum, "Today Wells Fargo has become the firstmajor U.S. bank and mortgage lender to endorse and embrace the make-senserecommendations from the Committee's report, placing financial literacy atthe center of their future mortgage lending process for borrowers deemedless than prime. I personally commend and applaud Wells Fargo, one of thelargest banks in the nation, for taking this action. By their actions andinitiative here, they are showing that they are a financial institutionworthy of some measure of admiration and respect." Cara Heiden,co-president of Wells Fargo Mortgage, said in a public statement on July 8,2008, "We support the Council on Financial Literacy and the Committee'srecommendations noted in 'the future of responsible sub-prime lending.'"The statement continued, "We agree with the Council that financial literacyshould serve as a foundation to all responsible sub-prime lending andunderstand the Council is continuing its discussions. We look forward totheir final determination."

Bryant continued, "Wells Fargo and Cara Heiden deserve special leadershipcredit here. As far back as 2003, they worked to stop practices thatweren't responsible for the borrower. As just one example, they went on torequire Wells Fargo to send a letter to every approved, broker-suppliedsub-prime loan applicant, where the bank thought the borrower may qualifyfor a prime-priced offering. They sent this letter, copying the broker,advising the borrower that they may qualify for better rates and terms.Cara'sco-president at Wells, Mike Heid, is also a respected leader in themortgage industry, and together Mike and Cara have made a real commitmentto integrate financial literacy into various phases of Wells' mortgagelending process. This is significant, and benefits the underservedcommunity that our Council Committee and HOPE are so passionate about. Icommend them."

Banco Popular also fully endorsed the Committee-approved report and thebank's CEO, Richard L. Carrión, spoke at the FDIC Forum.

The Housing Policy Council of the Financial Services Roundtable issued astatement of support, saying, "HPC supports the mission of the Committeewhich is to ensure that responsible sub-prime lending continues in thefuture." HPC continued, "We applaud the efforts of the Committee toreinvigorate the sub-prime market through responsible lending practices andimproved financial education for consumers."

John Reich, Director of the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision, issued astatement of support, saying, "the OTS strongly supports initiatives andpolicies that foster financial literacy, informed consumers, and highstandards of business conduct throughout the financial services industry.Consistent with these objectives, I strongly support the efforts of thePresident's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and the Committee on theUnderserved to develop a range of practices and policy recommendations forresponsible sub-prime lending." The statement continued, "The OTS iscommitted to lending our support to this important work. Senior members ofmy staff have participated in discussions, including the May 28th meetingof the Committee on the Underserved. We remain available for additionaldiscussions and assistance as needed."

U.S. Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan issued the followingstatement after the FDIC's Forum on Mortgage Lending for Low- andModerate-Income Households: "Today, I had the opportunity to participate inthe FDIC's Forum on Mortgage Lending for Low- and Moderate-Income (LMI)Households. At the Forum, many good ideas were discussed to encourageresponsible LMI mortgage lending, including the recommendations of theCommittee on the Underserved of the President's Advisory Council onFinancial Literacy. As I indicated when I recently addressed the Committee,I believe the key elements of a responsible mortgage lending product gearedat LMI populations should contain four elements: (1) the product should beeasy to understand and have disclosures that convey key elements of thetransaction to the consumer; (2) lenders should qualify borrowers based notjust on their capacity at the initiation of the transaction but over thelife of the loan; (3) borrowers should have some equity in the transactionand be required to make a down payment using their own funds; and (4) thecredit underwriting analysis should be flexible enough to evaluate 'thinfile' borrowers who can demonstrate their ability to repay recurringnon-credit related obligations in a timely manner. I support the effortsbeing pursued by the FDIC and the President's Advisory Council on FinancialLiteracy to ensure that mortgage products remain available for Americans ofall income levels with the desire and capacity to become homeowners."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson also commended the President's Councilon Financial Literacy's efforts to address the issue of financial literacyand sub-prime lending in his closing remarks at the Forum.

Bryant concluded in his prepared remarks, "While surely these industryadoptions, endorsements and statements of support are very encouraging withrespect to the now public Committee-approved report on 'the future ofresponsible sub-prime mortgage lending,' and we encourage others to takewhatever good ideas they might find useful to them (from the report and inthe marketplace), Council Chairman Schwab and I are already looking forwardto the next logical step, which includes introducing a broader, more policyoriented series of 'guiding principles' for consideration by the fullCouncil. This next step, which is now underway, involves the full Councilreview and consideration of a broader, related series of 'guidingprinciples' (policy recommendations) around 'the future of responsiblesub-prime mortgage lending,' which build off of the Committee report andwork."

"We appreciate that folks are taking their own action to adopt and endorsethe Council's Committee efforts, to identify a set of 'guiding principles,'particularly the mortgage industry," said Bryant. He continued, "TheCouncil Committee's work helps to 'signal' to the nation that Washingtonbelieves that responsible mortgage sub-prime lending should continue onsome reasonable basis, to responsible less-than-prime borrowers,post-sub-prime crisis; and probably most significantly the Council's workto include financial literacy -- for the first time ever -- in the mortgagelending process."

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair hosted the forum, which featured Federal ReserveChairman Ben Bernanke, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, JP MorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon, and a long list of leaders and luminaries in thefinancial sector.

The forum was held to strengthen dialogue in the financial services andlending communities around responsible sub-prime mortgage lending,examining amongst other things, avenues which could support standards andpractices in order to sustain and even expand homeownership in vulnerablecommunities.

Chairman Bair gave the introductory and closing remarks; Secretary Paulsonprovided the closing keynote, and Chairman Bernanke provided the openingkeynote address. An archived viewable webcast is available athttp://www.fdic.gov.

About the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy

The President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy (the Council) wascreated on January 22, 2008 by President George W. Bush. The Council'spurpose is to help keep America competitive and assist the American peoplein understanding and addressing financial matters. Each member of theCouncil represents an industry involved with the delivery of financialeducation to American citizens. The President and the Secretary of theTreasury have tasked the Council to work with the public and private sectorto help increase financial education efforts for youth in school and foradults in the workplace, increase access to financial services, establishmeasures of national financial literacy, conduct research on financialknowledge and to help strengthen public and private sector financialeducation programs. Financial guru Charles Schwab is chairman of theCouncil.

About the Committee on the Underserved of the President's Council

The (subgroup) Committee on the Underserved is tasked with developingrecommendations to increase the financial literacy of low-wealthindividuals and underserved communities. It focuses on three key areas toaccomplish this mission: (1) gathering information to better understandefforts needed to identify and to differentiate responsible andirresponsible sub-prime mortgage lending, and outlining what a responsiblesub-prime loan product looks like; (2) discussing other related issues suchas proper and "common sense" clear loan disclosures and the overall contextin which these products, disclosures and other related mortgage factorsbecome active positive or negative contact points with respect to financialliteracy; and (3) identifying what financial literacy initiatives areneeded to address the massive levels of financial illiteracy thatcontributed to the currentsub-prime crisis. The report is viewable athttp://www.treas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/financial-institution/fin-education/council/3rd-meeting-2008/SubprimeBackground06182008%20meeting.pdf

About Operation HOPE, Inc.

HOPE is a leading global nonprofit social investment banking and financialliteracy empowerment organization. Through its various initiatives and itsthree principal programs: "Banking on Our Future" (teaching youth aboutfinancial empowerment), HOPE Coalition America (financial emergencypreparedness and recovery), and the HOPE Center Banking Network (loans,bill pay, computer literacy, understanding banking principles), HOPE is atthe forefront of a "Silver Rights" movement to make free enterprise andcapitalism relevant to all underserved communities.

Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to Newsvine