"The financial crisis exposed the potentially unsavory results of the interaction between low- and moderate income households and alternative and mainstream financial institutions. Many households were overleveraged or paid high costs for financial services, while others lacked access to useful financial products that can cushion against economic instability. The financial services system is not well designed to serve low- and moderate-income households, leaving them without financial slack: they did not have adequate breathing room for making the financial adjustments that would permit them to better meet their own needs. No Slack shows us why these families were the least prepared to handle the shock of the deep recession. This pivotal analysis focuses on the Detroit metropolitan area's low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, which are similar to those of other Rust Belt communities. The Detroit Area Household Financial Services study-conducted at the height of the subprime lending boom-examines these households' decisionmaking processes, behaviors, and attitudes toward a full range of financial transactions. No Slack reveals widespread problems in home mortgage lending, the common threads among people who file for bankruptcy, the reasons so many households are unbanked, and how behaviorally informed financial regulation can make the market work better. Drawing on his deep policy experience, Michael Barr advocates helping families seek financial stability in three primary ways: enhancing individuals' financial capability, using technology to promote access to financial products and services that meet their needs, and establishing strong protections for consumers. "

"Broad-based and inclusive financial systems significantly raise growth, alleviate poverty, and expand economic opportunity. Households, small enterprises, and the rural poor often have difficulty obtaining financial services for a multitude of reasons, including transaction costs, perceived risk, inadequate infrastructure, and information barriers. Yet many financial institutions are now making profitable inroads into underserved markets through formal banking, investment in equities, venture capital, postal banks, and microfinance. Access to Finance addresses the challenges of making financial systems more inclusive, emulating successful ventures in new markets, and utilizing technologies and government policies to support the expansion of financial access. The contributors examine many dimensions of financial access, including: * Measuring financial access * Understanding the impact of expanded access * Examining alternative institutional models * Exploring new technologies and information infrastructure * Evaluating government policies toward outreach. "

The Third Edition of Financial Regulation: Law and Policy continues to offer students and faculty an innovative and accessible introduction to the field. Financial regulation has long been at the intersection of technological innovation, market forces, and the political economy, punctuated from time to time by financial and economic crises. Since the turn of the millennium, we have seen these pressures intensify and multiply. We have lived through the most systemic Financial Crisis in 70 years, a major shift in regulatory design, the digital transformation of the economy, including the financial sector, and a worldwide Pandemic with still uncertain economic impact, playing out against an increasingly divided and shifting political landscape. The Third Edition has been updated to keep pace with all of these changes. You will find extensive discussions of fintech, climate change, and racial equality across the Third Edition, as these topics move from the periphery to the center of the regulatory agenda. The Third Edition also adds a stand-alone Chapter on supervision, an important topic that we expect will be receiving more academic research and attention, as well as an expanded Chapter on enforcement. Like the Second Edition, the Third Edition analyzes and compares the market and regulatory architecture of the entire U.S. financial sector, from banks, insurance companies, and broker-dealers, to asset managers, fintech companies of many types, complex financial conglomerates, and government-sponsored enterprises. The Third Edition explores a range of financial activities, including consumer finance and investment, digital and traditional payment systems, securitization, short-term wholesale funding, money markets, and derivatives. Throughout the book, the authors note the cross-border implications of U.S. rules, and compare, where appropriate, the U.S. financial regulatory framework and policy choices to those in other places around the globe, especially the UK and the European Union.

One in four American adults doesn t have a bank account. Low-income families lack access to many of the basic financial services middle-class families take for granted and are particularly susceptible to financial emergencies, unemployment, loss of a home, and uninsured medical problems. Insufficient Funds explores how institutional constraints and individual decisions combine to produce this striking disparity and recommends policies to help alleviate the problem. Mainstream financial services are both less available and more expensive for low-income households. High fees, minimum-balance policies, and the relative scarcity of banks in poor neighborhoods are key factors. Michael Barr reports the results of an in-depth study of financial behavior in 1,000 low- and moderate-income families in metropolitan Detroit. He finds that most poor households have bank accounts, but combine use of mainstream services with alternative options such as money orders, pawnshops, and payday lenders. Barr suggests that a tax credit for banks serving primarily disadvantaged customers could facilitate greater equality in the private financial sector. Drawing on evidence from behavioral economics, Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir show that low-income individuals exhibit many of the same patterns and weaknesses in financial decision making as middle-class individuals and could benefit from many of the same financial aids. They argue that savings programs that automatically enroll participants and require them to actively opt out in order to leave the program could drastically increase savings ability. Ronald Mann demonstrates that significant changes in the credit market over the past fifteen years have allowed companies to expand credit to a larger share of low-income families. Mann calls for regulations on credit card companies that would require greater disclosure of actual interest rates and fees. Raphael Bostic and Kwan Lee find that while home ownership has risen dramatically over the past twenty years, elevated risks for low-income families such as foreclosure may well outweigh the benefits of owning a home. The authors ultimately argue that if we want to demand financial responsibility from low-income households, we have an obligation to assure that these families have access to the banking, credit, and savings institutions that are readily available to higher-income families. Insufficient Funds highlights where and how access is blocked and shows how government policy and individual decisions could combine to eliminate many of these barriers in the future."