In many urban areas around the United States, certain neighborhoods have few, if any, traditional financial services available for local residents. This intriguing report, produced by the Urban Institute Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center (for the Fannie Mae Foundation), explores the alternative financial service providers (such as check-cashing outlets) that some 56 million adults...

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation WWW Home Page is open for business. At this site, there is information on the U.S. banking industry, financial information on the condition of the Bank Insurance Fund and the Savings Association Insurance Fund, consumer information, and press releases.

Enacted by Congress in 1975, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires US banks, savings associations, credit unions, and other mortgage lending institutions to disclose their home mortgage and home improvement lending activity annually. Access to HMDA data with loan amounts by metropolitan area as well as the demographic make-up of applicants, is available at this Federal Financial...