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Manuel Adelino is an assistant professor of finance at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. He conducts research on household, corporate, and real estate finance. His current work focuses on the effect of access to collateral on new business creation and on the effects of the supply of mortgage credit on house prices. Previously, he worked as a business analyst in the Lisbon office of McKinsey and Company. Adelino received a PhD in financial economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.

Bryan Ashton serves as senior program coordinator at the Student Wellness Center at The Ohio State University, overseeing financial education and outreach, gambling prevention education, the Wellness Ambassador team, as well as prescription drug and men's sexual violence initiatives. Additionally, he supports holistic wellness programming and assessment efforts. Ashton earned a BS in business administration with a specialization in accounting from The Ohio State University.

Robert Avery is the project director of the National Mortgage Database at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). He joined the FHFA after retiring as a senior economist from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Previously, he was a professor at Cornell University and an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Avery is one of the founders of the tri-annual Survey of Consumer Finances and designed the loan sampling systems used for the Federal Reserve's examinations of small bank safety and soundness and for large syndicated loans. He heads a new inter-agency effort at the FHFA designed to create a comprehensive residential mortgage database to better serve supervisory and policy concerns. Avery holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin.

Nadine Ballard is an associate professor in the Paralegal Department at Sinclair Community College. Previously, she served for 15 years as a magistrate in the General Division of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas in Dayton, Ohio. She has been a licensed attorney in Ohio since 1980, having served six different attorneys general in the Consumer Protection Section of the Ohio Attorney General's office. In 2009, she served as the consumer protection fellow for the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, DC. Ballard is an annual contributor to Westlaw's Ohio Consumer Law Manual. She holds a BS in public affairs management with a concentration in consumerism from Michigan State University and a JD from the University of Dayton.

Ty Barksdale is vice president of business banking for Northeast Ohio at Sutton Bank. Previously, he held positions with a large regional bank as well as several community banks. Over the years, Barksdale has presented on topics relating to banking and finance to students, fellow bankers, and professionals in related fields. He has extensive knowledge and experience in government-guaranteed lending programs. Barksdale sits on the boards of several nonprofits, including Leadership Portage County and Children's Advantage. He is also a member of the Kent Rotary Club. Barksdale earned a bachelor's degree in economics and mathematics at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.

Michael Barr is a professor of law at the University of Michigan (UM) Law School and is also a professor of public policy at UM's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. In 2009, he served as the assistant secretary for financial institutions with the US Department of the Treasury and was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Barr conducts large-scale empirical research regarding financial services and financial regulation. Previously, he served as Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin's special assistant, as special advisor to President William J. Clinton, and as a law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter. He received a JD from Yale Law School, a master's degree in international relations from Magdalen College, Oxford University, and a BA in history from Yale University.

Greg Bell is the consumer compliance banking supervisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and is responsible for oversight of all consumer compliance, fair lending, and CRA examinations of state member banks in the Fourth District. Bell is a certified regulatory compliance manager. In addition to his 18 years of compliance examination experience with the Federal Reserve, he was a compliance, CRA, and BSA officer for two financial institutions. Bell earned a BS in business administration from Southeast Missouri State University.

Ken Benton is a senior consumer regulations specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He is the editor of Consumer Compliance Outlook, a Federal Reserve System outreach publication focusing on federal consumer protection laws and regulations. Prior to his current role, he practiced law in the Philadelphia area with particular expertise in consumer and commercial bankruptcies, commercial litigation, appeals, and trademarks. He has successfully argued appeals in federal and state appellate courts, including victories in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Benton holds a bachelor's degree in finance from Indiana University in Bloomington and a JD from Tulane University Law School.

Meta Brown is a senior economist in the Research and Statistics Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She is an applied microeconomist studying labor markets and households' consumption and investment choices, particularly consumer debt, job referrals and search, human capital investment, and late-life asset decumulation and bequests. Prior to joining the New York Fed, Brown was an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin. She earned a BA in English and economics from The Ohio State University and holds a PhD from New York University.

Shelly Callahan is the executive director of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees (MVRCR). She has served in a variety of roles at MVRCR, including employment manager, multi-cultural services director, and senior director of programs and services. In her current role, she oversees management of the agency, which promotes the well-being of culturally diverse individuals and families by welcoming refugees and immigrants and providing individual and community-centered activities designed to create opportunity and facilitate understanding. She worked for more than a decade in Washington, DC, as a legal editor and worked for four years at the Supreme Court of the United States in the Office of Reporter of Decisions' Office. Callahan received her BA from the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.

Diane Minunni Callan is vice president, Regulatory Information Services for TD Bank, where she oversees regulatory change for TD Bank. Callan has previously held positions within various TD entities overseeing compliance, anti-money laundering and CRA compliance. Prior to joining TD, she was an examiner with the Office of Thrift Supervision. Callan, a certified regulatory compliance manager and anti-money laundering specialist, earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the State University of New York College at Fredonia.

Anita Campbell is chief executive officer of Small Business Trends LLC, a media and information company. A lawyer by trade, she has worked in the banking, information technology, human resources, marketing, and e-commerce industries. Previously, Campbell was a senior vice president at Bell & Howell Company and served as chief executive officer to its subsidiary, MotorcycleWorld.com Inc. She also served as vice chair and advisory board member to the University of Akron's Center for Information Technology and eBusiness. Campbell holds a BA in English from Duquesne University and a JD from the University of Akron School of Law.

Sarah Davies is senior vice president of analytics, product management, and research at VantageScore Solutions LLC, a company launched by the three national credit reporting companies to provide credit grantors a highly predictive credit scoring model. There, she leads a team of scientists responsible for developing research and analytics on relevant market trends and topics. Additionally, Davies is responsible for the annual revalidation of the algorithms underlying the VantageScore model. Previously, she was senior vice president of product and marketing at Advanta Financial Services. Davies also served as executive vice president of marketing services at Bank One's Credit Card Division and was a principal at American Airlines' Sabre Decision Technologies. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in operations research and statistics from the University of Wales and Iowa State University, respectively.

Wenhua Di is a senior economist in the Community Development Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Her current research interests include consumer finance, housing economics, and program evaluation. Prior to joining the Dallas Fed, she was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has also consulted with the World Bank. Di holds a PhD in public policy with a concentration in environmental economics from Harvard University and an MS and a BS from Peking University.

Lei Ding is a community development economic advisor in the Community Development Studies and Education Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. His research interests include housing and mortgage finance, community and economic development, and statistical and spatial modeling. Prior to joining the Philadelphia Fed, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Wayne State University. He was also a senior research associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ding earned a bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University and a PhD in public policy from George Mason University.

Sean Dobson is chief executive officer and chairman at Amherst Holdings, an investment services company dedicated to US real estate finance. Dobson has over 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry, has served as a board member of the American Securitization Forum, and has counseled various branches of the federal government including the Department of Treasury, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the National Economic Advisor on housing and mortgage related issues. Dobson is co-founder, chief executive officer and chairman of the board at CapCityKids in Austin, Texas. He also currently serves as a governing trustee for the Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston.

Kristen Donoghue is the assistant deputy director for policy and strategy in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Office of Enforcement. Prior to her current role at CFPB, she was an assistant litigation deputy and an enforcement attorney. Previously, Donoghue practiced law at a large firm in Washington, DC. She also served as an adjunct professor in the Civil Practice Clinic at American University's Washington College of Law and as a judicial clerk to Judge Fred Parker on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She holds a BA from Georgetown University and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Justin Draeger is president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), where he serves as the organization's primary voice and as a liaison between association members, the US Congress, federal agencies, and the media. Prior to his appointment as president, he was vice president of public policy, advocacy, and research, as well the associate director of NASFAA. Previously, Draeger worked as a lead regulatory analyst for the Michigan Guaranty. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Baker College and the Association Mutual Health Insurance Corporation. He earned a BS in resource management from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Baker College.

Timothy Dunne is a research economist and policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, he was a vice president in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and led the Regional Issues Group. Previously, he was the Chong K. Liew Professor of Economics at the University of Oklahoma. Dunne also served as the director of research in the Office of the Chief Economist at the US Bureau of the Census. Dunne earned his BA in economics and history from the College of William and Mary and his PhD in economics from Pennsylvania State University.

O. Emre Ergungor is a senior research economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. His research focuses on financial intermediation, information economics, housing policy, and credit access of low- to moderate-income households. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Ergungor earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Bogazici University and an MBA from Koc University, both in Istanbul. He earned a PhD in finance from the University of Michigan.

Ryan Gilbert is co-founder and chief executive officer of BillFloat, a credit delivery platform. Previously, he was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Venrock. He is also co-founder of PropertyBridge and has held positions with Wells Fargo Payment Services and Andersen Consulting. Gilbert has been a speaker at financial industry conferences including the CFSI Underbanked Financial Services Forum, Finovate, Money2020, NACHA Payments Conference, and South by Southwest. He has testified before the US House of Representatives' subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. Gilbert was recognized by the San Francisco Business Times as one of 40 under 40 Emerging Leaders. He is a member of the State Bar of California and is also admitted to practice law in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Gilbert earned Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Michael Griffin is senior vice president of corporate CRA compliance and community development asset management at KeyBank, where he focuses on building partnerships at the corporate level and in the 22 KeyBank districts. He also has a lead role in responding to community groups and shaping KeyBank positions in response to community concerns. Previously, he was responsible for KeyBank Plus, Key's program to reach the unbanked, including the bank's check cashing program. Prior to joining KeyBank, Mike was the asset manager for Cleveland Housing Network. In 2010 he was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System's Consumer Advisory Council, where he served as the vice-chair of the Housing and Community Development Committee. Griffin received dual degrees in business administration and Spanish from Cleveland State University.

Andrew Hanson is an associate professor of economics at Marquette University. His primary interests are public finance and urban economics, and his research has examined federal housing subsidies, spatially targeted redevelopment programs, the incidence of tobacco taxation, and racial discrimination in housing markets. Hanson's work has been published in several academic outlets including the Journal of Urban Economics, National Tax Journal, Regional Science and Urban Economics, and the Journal of Regional Science. He received a BS in economics from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and earned a PhD in economics from Syracuse University.

Daniel Hartley is a research economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He is primarily interested in urban and regional economics and labor economics. His current work focuses on crime, public housing, and neighborhood housing market dynamics. Hartley has an MBA in economics and finance from the University of Chicago, and an ME and a BS in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.

Kyle Herkenhoff is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has coauthored several papers assessing the impact of mortgage market interventions on employment recoveries. His newest research, which was recently awarded UCLA's Welton Prize in Macroeconomics and the Institute of Humane Studies Dissertation Fellowship, looks at the rise of unsecured credit access among the unemployed during the mid-1980s and its role in jobless recoveries.

Ernie Hogan is the executive director of the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG). Previously, he held positions with Northside Leadership Conference and East Liberty Development, Inc., and was a board member of Highland Park Community Development Corporation. Throughout his career, Hogan has helped foster the development of 600 units of housing and the creation of more than 1,500 jobs. Prior to joining PCRG's staff, Hogan was a member of its board of directors and helped devise many innovative programs to target credit to low-income and minority communities. In 2006, Hogan was the recipient of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Community Champion Award. He is a licensed realtor and holds a BA in business administration and economic finance management from the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.

Paul Kaboth is vice president of the Community Development Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. His responsibilities include strategic oversight of the department's work on a range of consumer credit, community reinvestment, and asset-building issues with the Bank's Research, Policy, and Supervision and Regulation Departments. He also directs research, outreach, and public programs that promote fair and equal access to credit in the Fourth Federal Reserve District. Kaboth began his career with the Bank in 1986 as a bank examiner. Prior to assuming his current role, he held oversight responsibility for specialty examinations related to risk management in the areas of credit, markets and liquidity, operations, and corporate compliance. Kaboth holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Scott Karol is director of program evaluation and technology at Clarifi. Prior to joining Clarifi, Karol developed client data systems and quality initiatives for Women Against Abuse. He was also a research assistant with the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and an Eagleton Research fellow with the New Jersey Legislature's Office of Legislative Services. Karol holds an MSW with a specialization in nonprofit and public management from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and a BA in American studies from Pennsylvania State University.

Daniel Kreisman is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy's Education Policy Initiative at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on education policy, labor economics, education finance, and the economics of education. In recent work, he explores the impact of philanthropic investments on racial inequality in Southern schooling. Previously, he worked for the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center and Chapin Hall. Prior to graduate school, Kreisman taught high school English in New Orleans. He has received grant and fellowship awards from the American Education Research Association and the Institute of Education Sciences. Kreisman holds a PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago and a BA in history and philosophy from Tulane University.

Rob Levy is the director of research at the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI), where he oversees consumer research on financially underserved consumers and industry research on the trends and dynamics of the underbanked marketplace. Levy has spoken at the ATM, Debit and Prepaid Forum; the Assets Learning Conference; FiSCA; the Underbanked Financial Services Forum; the FDIC's Consumer Research Symposium; and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System's Financial Literacy Seminar Series. Previously, he served as co-director of a student consulting team for a startup community bank targeting the underbanked and as a summer associate for the mortgage foreclosure task force at the Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund. Levy holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Tamara Lindsay is the Director for Financial Empowerment Programs at the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE). OFE administers a network of Financial Empowerment Centers providing one-on-one financial counseling; negotiates safe and affordable banking products to reach New York City's unbanked; tests innovative asset building efforts, including SaveUSA; increases access to safe and affordable tax preparation services; promotes beneficial tax credits; and protects New Yorkers with low incomes from predatory practices. She holds a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University and an MPA from Baruch University, City University of New York.

Michael Little serves as chief compliance officer for PNC Financial Services Group. He recently served as risk executive for compliance, operational risk, and credit risk processes. Previously, he served as the general auditor for PNC. Prior to joining PNC, Little was a credit specialist at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, where he was responsible for developing and implementing strategies supporting the ongoing supervision of national banks and supervising examination teams during the performance of credit and operational examinations. He was also a designated credit instructor for the Northeast District. Little holds a BS in information systems and industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University and a JD from Seton Hall University.

Lance Lochner is a professor and the chair of the CIBC Centre for Human Capital and Productivity in the Department of Economics at the University of Western Ontario. He is also the chair of Human Capital and Productivity in the Canada Research Chair Program. Lochner's research interests are labor economics, economics of education, and economics of crime, and his research is largely devoted to the theoretical and empirical study of human capital formation throughout the lifecycle. Previously, he was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Rochester and spent a year as a W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National fellow at the Hoover Institution. He earned a BA in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.

Brian Melzer is an assistant professor in the Finance Department at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. His research interests include household finance, financial institutions, and financial regulation. His recent work examines the investment choices of heavily indebted homeowners and the effects of unemployment insurance on mortgage default. He has also studied the effects of pay day loans. Melzer earned bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy from Princeton University and the University of St. Andrews, respectively. He also holds a PhD in economics from University of Chicago.

Vyacheslav Mikhed is an industry specialist in the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. His research interests are household finance, consumer credit, personal bankruptcy, mortgage foreclosure, and real estate economics, and his current work explores the impacts on personal bankruptcy of income shocks, income inequality, and ease of access to the bankruptcy system. Mikhed is also examining the effect of government policies promoting lending to low-income and minority borrowers on US mortgage foreclosures. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Alberta, an MA in economics from the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute (Czech Republic), an MA in economics from Economics Education and Research Consortium (Ukraine), and a BA in economics from the National University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine).

Shekar Narasimhan is managing partner at Beekman Advisors, which provides strategic advisory services in the real estate, mortgage finance, and affordable housing sectors. He previously served as managing director of the Prudential Mortgage Capital Company. Prior to that, he was chairman and chief executive officer of the WMF Group. Narasimhan is a fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. He has served several terms on the Board of Directors of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA). Narasimhan was awarded the MBA's Fannie Mae Lifetime Achievement Award and the University of Pittsburgh's Dean H.J. Zoffer Distinguished Service Medal. He holds a BS in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh's Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business.

Linda O'Connell is small business banking manager at Barlow Research Associates, Inc., where she manages the small business banking syndicated research program. Linda has direct client management responsibility for research interpretation and presentations to large bank clients. Prior to joining Barlow, she was director of marketing for the Independent Community Bankers of Minnesota. Previously, she held positions with Wells Fargo (formerly Norwest) and M&I (formerly National City Bank of Minneapolis). She was president of Minnesota's Bank Marketing Association. She holds a degree in business economics from the University of Minnesota and is a graduate of the ABA School of Commercial Lending.

Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere is an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Economics. She is also a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany, and a research affiliate at Households in Conflict Network. Her primary research interests are labor, development, education, and population economics. Oyelere's labor research is focused on group differences in entrepreneurship and possible explanations for these differences. She holds a PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Hoonsuk Park is a third-year doctoral candidate of finance at the Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University. His research interests include household finance, corporate finance, and institutional investors. He is particularly interested in the savings decisions of households. Park has worked as an equity analyst locally and at the Export–Import Bank of Korea. He earned a BA in business administration from Korea University.

Vanessa Perry is associate professor and chair of the Marketing Department at the George Washington University School of Business. Her research on consumers in financial and housing markets, public policy, and consumer welfare has appeared in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, California Management Review, and the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. Previously, she was a senior economist at Freddie Mac. From 2011 to 2012, she served as an expert on consumer information for the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Perry has also worked as a consultant to Bank of America, the National Association of Realtors, the IRS, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Perry holds a BA in philosophy from American University, an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, and a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sandra Pianalto is president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, where she participates in the formulation of US monetary policy and oversees 1,000 employees in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh who conduct economic research, supervise financial institutions, and provide payment services to commercial banks and the US government. Pianalto earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Akron and an MA in economics from George Washington University. She is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and holds honorary degrees from the University of Akron, Baldwin–Wallace College, Kent State University, Ursuline College, Notre Dame College, Cleveland State University, and John Carroll University.

Edward J. Pinto is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he specializes in housing finance and the effects of government housing policies on mortgages, foreclosures, and the availability of affordable housing for working-class families. He is currently researching policy options for rebuilding the US housing finance sector and writes AEI's monthly FHA Watch. Previously, Pinto was an executive vice president and chief credit officer for Fannie Mae. His work on the Government Mortgage Complex includes research papers submitted to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Pinto holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Rob Pitingolo is a research associate with the Urban Institute's Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, where he contributes to projects studying shared equity homeownership models, the foreclosure crisis, concentrated poverty, and school performance and mobility among residents in low-income neighborhoods. His work focuses both locally in Washington, DC, and in other metro areas throughout the country. Pitingolo was an author and data analyst for the 2012 Housing Discrimination Study. Previously, he was an intern at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, studying vacancy and abandonment in urban neighborhoods in the Fourth District. Pitingolo holds a BA in economics from John Carroll University.

Benjamin Pugsley is an economist in the Macroeconomic and Monetary Studies Function of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Prior to joining the Bank, he was a lecturer at the University of Chicago. His primary research interests include growth, firm dynamics, and entrepreneurship. In particular, he studies the behavior of young and small firms and their role in aggregate economic conditions. His research on small business formation and growth has been featured in Slate, Business Week, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal. Puglsey earned a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and a BA from Columbia University.

David Reiss is a professor of law at the Brooklyn Law School. Previously, Reiss was an associate in the New York office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison in its Real Estate Department, and an associate in the San Francisco office of Morrison and Foerster in its Land Use and Environmental Law Group. He was also a law clerk to Judge Timothy Lewis of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His article, "Subprime Standardization: How Rating Agencies Allow Predatory Lending to Flourish in the Secondary Mortgage Market" was named best article of 2006 on a topic dealing with consumer financial services law by the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. He received his BA from Williams College and his JD from the New York University School of Law.

C. Lockwood Reynolds is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Kent State University. His teaching and research interests are microeconomics, labor economics, public economics, and the economics of education, with a particular focus on access to and completion in higher education and the local effects of government policies designed to encourage economic activity. Reynolds teaches principles of microeconomics and the economics of labor markets. He also teaches managerial economics to Kent's MBA program and is a three-time winner of the Outstanding MBA Professor Award. He holds a BA in economics and Japanese from Williams College and a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.

David Rothstein is director of resource development and public affairs at Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland (NHSGC) and project director for the Ohio CASH Coalition. He has researched and published on asset, housing, and consumer issues. Prior to joining NHSGC, Rothstein was project director for asset building at Policy Matters Ohio, where he started the Ohio CASH Coalition. He was awarded the Distinguished Activist Award from Greater Community Shares for his work against predatory lending and a Cleveland Mover and Shaker Award by the 20/30 Professional Association. He currently serves as a research fellow with the New America Foundation and is a board member of the National Community Tax Coalition. Rothstein holds a BA in political science from John Carroll University and a master's degree in public policy from Kent State University.

Katherine Samolyk is a senior economist in the Office of Research at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Prior to joining the CFPB, she spent 15 years at the FDIC, where she conducted research on the determinants of banking and financial sector conditions, small business financing issues, and the implications of bank consolidation for the provision of banking services and the role of community banks. Previously, she was a visiting economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. She received her BS in economics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and her PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

David Scharfstein is the Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Finance and Banking at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on banking, financial distress, risk management, housing finance, venture capital, and corporate investment. Prior to his current role, he was the Dai Ichi Kangyo Professor of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. Scharfstein is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also a member of the Squam Lake Working Group on Financial Regulation, a nonpartisan, nonaffiliated group of economists which offers guidance on financial regulatory reform. Scharfstein served as senior advisor to the Secretary of the US Treasury. He holds a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an AB from Princeton University.

Michael Simkovic is an associate professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law. Prior to joining Seton Hall's faculty, he was an attorney at Davis, Polk and Wardwell, a strategy consultant at McKinsey and Company, and an Olin fellow in law and economics at Harvard Law School. His research focuses on credit market regulation and was cited in the US Congress' Joint Economic Committee report recommending sweeping reforms of the credit card industry, and by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The New York Times, and USA Today. Simkovic earned a BA from Duke University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Eldar Shafir is the William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and co-founder and scientific director at ideas42, a social science R&D lab. His current research focuses on decision making in contexts of poverty and on the application of behavioral research to policy. He was president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, and has held visiting positions at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Hebrew University Institute for Advanced Studies, Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, and Di Tella University in Buenos Aires. Recently, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In January 2012, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability. He received a BA from Brown University and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lan Shi is a senior research associate with the Urban Institute's Housing Finance Research Center and is also an assistant professor in the Economics Department at the University of Washington. Previously, she was a visiting researcher and instructor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management. Her research interests include agency theory, mortgage financing, and financial institutions and markets. Shi holds an MBA and a PhD in business economics from the University of Chicago.

Joanna Smith-Ramani is the director of scale strategies for the Doorways 2 Dreams (D2D) Fund, where she works on the expansion of successful innovation pilots. Prior to joining D2D, she was the director of the Baltimore CASH (Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope) Campaign, an asset building, tax preparation, and EITC coalition in Baltimore, Maryland. Previously, she held positions at Self Help Credit Union, ShoreBank, several Habitat for Humanity affiliates, and the Policy Development and Research Division of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Smith-Ramani holds a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Mark Sniderman is executive vice president and chief policy officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He is responsible for guiding the Bank's economic research and community development efforts. Sniderman joined the Bank's Research Department as an economist in 1976. He assumed his current position in 2007. Sniderman served as senior economist for economic policy analysis for the US Senate Budget Committee in Washington, DC, while on leave from the Bank. He is a past president of the Cleveland Association for Business Economics. Sniderman earned a bachelor's degree from Case Western Reserve University, as well as master's and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Jon Steiger is the director of the East Central Region of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) based in Cleveland, Ohio, which covers consumer protection and education issues for Delaware, Washington, DC, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Prior to becoming director, Steiger was an assistant regional director with the FTC. He was also a consumer protection litigator and an attorney in the FTC's Office of the General Counsel. Previously, he clerked for Judge Avern Cohn in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Steiger holds a BA in philosophy from the University of Michigan and a JD from Columbia University's Law School.

Judith Steiner is executive vice president and chief risk officer of FirstMerit Corporation. She is responsible for enterprise risk management, compliance, CRA, insurance, security/fraud, and AML/BSA. Prior to assuming her current post, she served as general counsel and corporate secretary, compliance officer, and AML/BSA officer. Previously, she was an associate with Brouse McDowell in Akron, Ohio. Steiner serves as a board member of the Humane Society of Greater Akron and Archbishop Hoban High School. She is also a former member of the Boards of Trustees of HM Life Opportunity Services and Fair Housing Contact Service. Steiner holds a BA from the University of Akron and a JD from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Kenneth Temkin is principal of Temkin Associates and has over 20 years of experience in analyzing housing finance issues, as well as working on program evaluations and economic analyses for a variety of public, private, and nonprofit clients. Prior to establishing his firm, he was an associate at Kormendi/Gardner Partners, an investment bank located in Washington, DC. Previously, Temkin was a senior research associate at the Urban Institute. He earned his PhD in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after earning an MBA from Baruch College and a BS from New York University.

Chao Yue Tian is a research associate at the Center for Community Capital at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work focuses on statistical research and his current projects involve modeling loan performance within competing risk hazard model frameworks. Previously, he was a teaching assistant in the Department of Economics and a research assistant at the Center for Economic Research at George Washington University. Tian received a BA in law from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics and an MA in liberal learning from Marrietta College. He holds a PhD in economics from George Washington University.

Lou Tisler is the executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Greater Cleveland. Prior to joining NHS, he was the executive director of the First Suburbs Development Council. Previously, he was executive director of Westown Community Development Corporation. Tisler was selected by the American Marshall Memorial Fund for its German Marshall Fellowship program, which provides a unique opportunity for attendees from European countries and the United States to gain an in-depth understanding of societies, institutions, and people across the Atlantic. He was also named Emerging Leader of the Year by the National NeighborWorks Association, was named to Crain's Cleveland Business' Forty under 40 Program, and featured in the "One 2 Watch" column of Inside Business. Tisler holds an MBA in management and labor relations and a bachelor's degree in finance from Cleveland State University.

Joseph Tracy is an executive vice president and special advisor to the president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was previously director of research. His primary research interests include housing and urban economics, as well as unions and collective bargaining. Prior to joining the New York Fed, Tracy was an associate professor at Yale University and Columbia University. He holds a BA from the University of Missouri and a PhD from the University of Chicago.

Trent Troyer serves as president and chief executive officer of First Federal Community Bank in Dover, Ohio. Previously, he was vice president and regional manager of Belmont National Bank. He presently serves on the boards of Tuscarawas County Community Improvement Corporation and the Ohio Bankers League. Troyer is also a member of the New Philadelphia Kiwanis Club, New Philadelphia City Schools Financial Advisory Committee, the Association of Ohio Commodores, and the Ohio Bankers League Government Relations Council. He holds degrees from Kent State University and Ashland University. Troyer is also a graduate of the American Bankers Association's Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Georgetown University.

Susan Wachter is the Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management and professor of real estate and finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is also co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research and director of the Wharton GIS Lab. Wachter served as assistant secretary for policy development and research at HUD, a President-appointed and Senate-confirmed position. A former chairperson of the Wharton Real Estate Department, she served as president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association and co-editor of Real Estate Economics. Wachter presently serves on a number of journals' editorial boards. In 2005, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association. Wachter earned bachelor's and doctoral degrees in economics from Harvard University and Boston College, respectively.

Ann Marie Wiersch is a policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. She joined the Bank in 1999 and worked in the Bank's Accounting and Financial Management Departments prior to her transition to a policy role in 2009. Wiersch has worked on several Federal Reserve System initiatives, including projects focused on small business issues and state and local government finance. She holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Bowling Green State University and an MBA from Cleveland State University.

Lauren Williams is a program manager for the affordable homeownership and entrepreneurship teams at the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), where she works to promote the use of high-quality manufactured housing as a key source of affordable homeownership. Williams also focuses on the Self-Employment Tax Initiative (SETI). Previously, she interned with the Danville Regional Foundation, where she worked on the foundation's initiatives in economic and community development. She also worked with the University of North Carolina School of Government's Community- Campus Partnership program. Williams holds a bachelor's degree in economics and international studies from University of North Carolina at Chapel.

Jonathan Zinman is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College, and co-founder and scientific director of the US Household Finance Initiative (USHFI) of Innovations for Poverty Action. He also serves on the inaugural Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and as a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Zinman is a member of the Behavioral Finance Forum and the Sage/Sloan Foundations Working Group on Behavioral Economics and Consumer Finance. His research focuses on household finance and behavioral economics. He works directly with financial service providers to develop and test innovations that are beneficial to both providers and their clients. Zinman holds a BA in government from Harvard University and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Special thanks to Fifth Third Bancorp and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. for providing numerous scholarships to attend the Policy Summit to community development partners in their affiliate banks' footprint.

Thursday, September 19

10:30 A.M. – 11:30 A.M. REGISTRATION & WELCOME

11:30 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. LUNCH & OPENING ADDRESS

Keynote speaker: Sandra Pianalto, President & Chief executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland A member of the Federal Open Market Committee, Ms. Pianalto has unique insights on housing finance policy and regulations. Watch

1:00 – 2:30 P.M. OPENING PLENARY

The New Housing Finance System: Are We There Yet? In this opening plenary session, noted researchers and policy experts will take up the current heated debate over the future of housing finance in this country. In light of recent regulatory changes, how will the new financial environment influence housing finance going forward? What are the points of consensus and contention regarding the roles of the GSEs, the FHA, and private market participants? The plenary participants will discuss the path forward for housing finance and, not least, the implications for low-income households’ access to affordable housing. Watch Moderator: Robert Avery, Project Director of the National Mortgage Database, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Speakers: Shekar Narasimhan, Managing Partner, Beekman Advisors, Inc. David S. Scharfstein, Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Finance and Banking, Harvard Business School Susan Wachter, Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management & Professor of Real Estate and Finance, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

2:40 – 4:10 P.M.  CONCURRENT SESSION A

RESEARCH BREAKOUT A1

Affordable Housing, Mortgage Underwriting, and Default: The Case of the FHA In the past few years, the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) market share has increased substantially, as have its default and foreclosure rates. Recently, the White House announced that the FHA may have to make a capital call to the US Department of the Treasury for the first time in its history, prompting debate over the future of the organization. In this session, a panel of experts will discuss the FHA’s financial situation, its role in providing affordable housing, and explore potential policy responses. Moderator: Emre Ergungor, Senior Research Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Speakers: Edward J. Pinto, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute    How the FHA Hurts Working-Class Families Summary and Findings   ⇓ The Federal Housing Administration’s mission is to be a targeted provider of mortgage credit for low- and moderate-income Americans and first-time home buyers, leading to homeownership success and neighborhood stability. But is the FHA achieving this mission? This paper reports on a comprehensive study that shows the FHA is engaging in practices resulting in a high proportion of low- and moderate-income families losing their homes. Based on an analysis of the FHA’s FY 2009 and 2010 books of business, the FHA’s lending practices are inconsistent with its mission. The findings indicate: An estimated 40 percent of the FHA’s business consists of loans with either one or two subprime attributes—a FICO score below 660 or a debt ratio greater than or equal to 50 percent (based on loans insured during FY 2012). The FHA’s underwriting policies encourage low- and moderate-income families with low credit scores or high debt burdens to make risky financing decisions—combining a low credit score and/or a high debt ratio with a 30-year loan term and a low down payment. A substantial portion of these loans has an expected failure rate exceeding 10 percent. Across the country, 9,000 zip codes with a median family income below the metro area median have projected foreclosure rates equal to or greater than 10 percent. These zips have an average projected foreclosure rate of 15 percent and account for 44 percent of all FHA loans in the low- and moderate-income zips. Implications for Policy and Practice The study identified specific reforms to focus the FHA on responsible lending and return it to its traditional mission: Step 1: Target an average 7 percent projected claim termination rate, assuming no house price appreciation or depreciation. Step 2: Stop guaranteeing lower-risk loans and high-dollar-balance borrowers, as this allows for cross-subsidization of those loans with excessive risk. This will also let the FHA step back from markets that can be served by the private sector and allow it to concentrate on home buyers who truly need help. Step 3: Price for risk, since not doing so deprives the borrower of the price information needed to understand the true risk of the loan. Until this is done, the FHA should disclose to the borrower his or her expected claim rate, assuming no house price appreciation or depreciation. Step 4: Implement underwriting that results in the extension of responsible mortgage credit, by balancing down payment, loan term, FICO score, and debt-to-income ratio to achieve meaningful equity.   David Reiss, Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School How Low is Too Low? The Federal Housing Administration and the Low Downpayment Loan Summary and Findings   ⇓ The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has been a flexible tool of government since it was created during the Great Depression. It succeeded wonderfully, with rapid growth during the late 1930s. The federal government repositioned it a number of times over the following decades to achieve a variety additional social goals. It achieved success with some of its goals and had a terrible record with others. Today’s FHA is suffering from many of the same unrealistic underwriting assumptions that have done in so many subprime lenders as well as Fannie and Freddie. The FHA has come under attack for its poor execution of some of its additional mandates and leading commentators have called for the federal government to stop undertaking them. This article takes the long view and demonstrates that the FHA also has a history of successfully undertaking new programs. It also identifies operational failures that should be noted to prevent them from occurring if the FHA were to undertake similar ones in the future. The article first sets forth the dominant critique of the FHA and a history of its constantly changing role. It then addresses the dominant critique of the FHA and evaluates its priorities in the context of legitimate housing policy objectives. It concludes that the FHA has focused on an unthinking “more is better” approach to housing, but that the FHA can responsibly address objectives other than the provision of liquidity to the residential mortgage market. Implications for Policy and Practice Leading commentators on the FHA do not fully appreciate the extent to which down payment requirements alone drive the success and failure of new FHA initiatives. Central to any analysis of the FHA’s role is an understanding of its policies relating down payment size. Much of the FHA’s performance is driven by its down payment requirements, which have trended ever downward so that homeowners were able to get loans for 100% of the value of the house in recent times. As is obvious to all, the larger the down payment, the safer the loan. What appears to have been less obvious is that very small down payments are unacceptably risky. Given that the FHA insures 100% of the losses on its mortgages, the down payment requirement is a key driver of its performance. From an underwriting perspective, 20% is clearly desirable as the risk of default is very low even in a down market. But from an opportunity perspective, a 20% down payment requirement would keep large swaths of potential first-time homeowners from entering the market. If down payments are set too high, than an important social goal may be left by the wayside. So it is important that the public discourse weighs the costs and benefits of setting a fixed down payment requirement versus taking a risk layering approach to down payments. In either case, the FHA must balance the goal of safe underwriting with the goal of making homeownership available to households who could maintain it for the long term.   Joseph Tracy, Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor to the President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Interpreting the Recent Developments in Housing Markets Summary and Findings   ⇩ Summary and Findings A major headwind during the economic recovery was the contraction in residential investment as well as the weakness in consumer demand resulting from the housing crisis. The recent increases in house prices across most housing markets are welcomed and support the growing optimism about the near-term economic outlook. In some markets, the magnitudes of these recent price increases have been quite large and raise the question of whether they may presage a return of speculative concerns. We evaluate these concerns by looking at the evolution of rent/price and price/replacement cost ratios in these markets. We also investigate the impact of the still low transaction volumes in most housing markets on the estimated repeat-sale price increases Implications for Policy and Practice Interpreting recent house price dynamics is important for arriving at a correct assessment of the health of local housing markets. The impact of development in housing on the broader macro economy also depends on these assessments.

RESEARCH BREAKOUT A2

Small Business Trends and Policies after the Great Recession Research shared in this session will give participants a detailed view of what characterizes small businesses and small business employment, clarifying long-held misconceptions on the topic and possible implications in policymaking. The session will also include an analysis of the effectiveness of a large-scale entrepreneurship training program and what it means for policy. Moderator: Lockwood Reynolds, Assistant Professor, Kent State University Speakers: Manuel Adelino, Assistant Professor of Finance, Duke University's Fuqua School of Business House Prices, Collateral and Self-Employment Summary and Findings   ⇓ This paper documents the role of the collateral lending channel to facilitate small business starts and self-employment in the period before the financial crisis of 2008. We document that between 2002 and 2007 areas with a bigger run up in house prices experienced a strong increase in employment in small businesses compared to employment in large firms in the same industries. This increase in small business employment was particularly pronounced in (1) industries that need little startup capital and can thus more easily be financed out of increases in housing as collateral; and (2) manufacturing industries where goods are shipped over long distances, which rules out that local demand is driving the expansion. We show that this effect is separate from an aggregate demand channel that relies on home equity based borrowing leading to increased demand and employment creation. Implications for Policy and Practice This paper documents the role of the collateral lending channel to facilitate small business starts and self-employment in the period before the financial crisis of 2008. We document that between 2002 and 2007 areas with a bigger run up in house prices experienced a strong increase in employment in small businesses compared to employment in large firms in the same industries. This increase in small business employment was particularly pronounced in (1) industries that need little startup capital and can thus more easily be financed out of increases in housing as collateral; and (2) manufacturing industries where goods are shipped over long distances, which rules out that local demand is driving the expansion. We show that this effect is separate from an aggregate demand channel that relies on home equity based borrowing leading to increased demand and employment creation.   Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere, Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology Black-White Gap in Self-Employment. Does Intra-Race Heterogeneity Exist?  Benjamin Pugsley, Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of New York What Do Small Businesses Do? Summary and Findings   ⇓ Past research on the determinants of self-employment in the U.S. has emphasized the importance of ethnicity. In particular, self-employment rates for Blacks lag far behind those of other racial groups for comparable individuals. Institutions matter and their impacts are long lived. At the same time, information is also important and affects individuals’ preferences. We hypothesize that part of the lag in Blacks’ self-employment rates may be explained by the effects of past institutions and the information created from past institutional shocks. If this hypothesis is correct, we should find that those who did not experience institutional shocks directly or indirectly should exhibit different preferences from those who did, despite similar racial background. In addition, we expect that those who experienced such shocks indirectly should also exhibit preference differences from those directly affected, given that their preferences will also be influenced by their own experiences and information reflecting current conditions. This is the motivation for our two questions of interest: Does the dummy variable coefficient associated with the Black–White self-employment gap exhibit intra-race heterogeneity? Second, does this variable have diminished or increased impact across generations? We find evidence of intra-race heterogeneity. We also find evidence of differences in the probability of entrepreneurship across different birth cohorts of African-Americans. Implications for Policy and Practice These results provide two direct policy applications. First, targeting African Americans and educating them about the current opportunities available in self-employment is necessary. There are alternative ways this can be done, but local forums aimed at discussing why Black businesses failed in the past and the constraints they face today are useful in changing current information on possible business failure for African Americans. Second, providing incentives is useful. Ultimately, people respond to incentives and given the negative institutional shocks faced by African Americans in the past, which may have led to a heightened apprehension about the risks of self-employment, thinking of innovative ways to incentivize African Americans towards entrepreneurship should be useful.

PRACTITIONER BREAKOUT A3

Getting the Right Balance: Generating Income and Achieving Savings in a Post-Recession World Household balance sheets are all about income and assets (what you earn and what you own) versus debt and spending (what you owe and what you consume). In addition to income, savings play an integral role in family financial stability. This session will look at the current state of household balance sheets following the recession and delve into the components of the balance sheet. It will also attempt to answer two questions: What programs help those with less-robust balance sheets generate income? And what tools are available to low- and moderate-income individuals to facilitate saving? Moderator: David Rothstein, Director of Resource Development & Public Affairs, Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland, and Project Director, Ohio CASH Coalition Speakers: Tamara Lindsay, Director of Programs, NYC Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE). Joanna Smith-Ramani, Director of Scale Strategies, Doorways 2 Dreams (D2D) Fund Lauren Williams, Program Manager, Affordable Homeownership & Entrepreneurship, Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED)

PRACTITIONER BREAKOUT A4

In a Pinch: Access to Affordable Short-Term Credit Access to mainstream sources of consumer credit is a challenge for many low- and moderate-income households. To fill gaps in monthly expenses and income, some turn to small dollar credit products such as payday loans. While these products meet consumer needs, it is often at a high cost to borrowers. Panelists in this session will discuss why consumers use these products despite the costs, the availability of small dollar credit products and the impact of regulation on them, and some innovative and more affordable approaches to fulfilling the short-term credit needs of consumers. Moderator: Rob Levy, Director of Research, Center for Financial Services Innovation Speakers: Sarah Davies, Senior Vice President, Analytics, Product Management and Research, VantageScore Solutions, LLC Ryan Gilbert, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, BillFloat Michael Griffin, Senior Vice President, KeyBank

LEARNING BREAKOUT A5

QM & QRM: What it Means for Bankers A key contributor to the financial crisis was the proliferation of mortgages made with lax underwriting standards which were then securitized. The Dodd-Frank Act imposes new legal requirements on both mortgage originators and mortgage securitizers. These requirements include an exemption for securitizing Qualified Residential Mortgages (QRMs) and a safe harbor for originating Qualified Mortgages (QMs). Many originators and securitizers are expected to originate and securitize only mortgages that meet the QM and QRM standards, thus having a profound effect on residential mortgage lending. This interactive session will examine the new QRM and QM standards, as well as the impact on borrowers and implications for fair lending. It will also address the difference between the safe harbor for prime QRMs and the rebuttable presumption of compliance for higher-priced mortgage loans (HPML), and the implications for the Community Reinvestment Act and TILA’s civil liability provisions. Speakers: Greg Bell, Consumer Compliance Banking Supervisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (Cincinnati Branch) Ken Benton, Senior Consumer Regulations Specialist, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

4:15 – 5:45 P.M. CONCURRENT SESSION B

RESEARCH BREAKOUT B1

Consumer and Household Finance This session focuses on consumer and household finance, with particular attention paid to consumer behaviors and financial implications. The speakers will specifically address household borrowing behavior through the housing boom and bust, the substitution between mortgage and non-mortgage debt, the consumption response to tax refunds, and the benefits and costs of checking accounts as they are actually used by low- and moderate-income households. Moderator: Dan Hartley, Research Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Speakers: Research Session on Consumer and Household Finance Meta Brown, Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Impact of Housing Markets on Consumer Debt: Credit Report Evidence from 1999 to 2012 Summary and Findings   ⇓ We investigate the impact of large swings in the housing market on non-mortgage borrowing, using CoreLogic geographic house price variation and Equifax-sourced Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel data for 1999 to 2012. First-differenced instrumental variables estimates indicate that all homeowner types increased both housing and non-housing debt in response to the housing boom. However, older and prime homeowners responded to house price changes by reallocating obligations between home equity and credit card debt, with little change in total debt, during both the comparatively stable 1999-2001 period and the 2007-2012 downturn. Younger and marginally creditworthy homeowners’ non-mortgage debts moved with house prices during both expansions and downturns. These results suggest meaningful wealth effects of the housing market on consumption only for the boom period, but collateral effects throughout. A difference-in-differences estimation approach yields similar results. Finally, despite broad speculation, we find little substitution out of home equity debt into student loans in response to recent house price declines. Implications for Policy and Practice Our findings address the nature of both debt and consumption responses to movements in the housing market, in good economic times and bad. Understanding whether and which homeowners adjust consumption in response to changes in housing wealth may help us understand the path of the recovery. Further, our failure to uncover evidence of meaningful substitution out of home equity debt into student loans from 2007-2012 suggests that a housing market recovery may do little to curb the rapid growth of U.S. student debt   Hoonsuk Park, The Ohio State University Financial Constraints and Consumers' Response to Expected Cash Flows: Direct Evidence from Filing Tax Returns Summary and Findings  ⇓ Economic models typically assume that households adjust their consumption based on new information rather on the actual receipt of funds (e.g., Laibson 1997). Empirical studies, however, find evidence that appears to contradict the theory. Specifically, the common result is that households react to actual cash flows. For example, households consume more following the regular receipt of monthly paychecks or social security payments (Stephens 2003, 2006), following tax return refunds (Souleles 1999), and following tax rebates (Agarwal, Liu, and Souleles 2007). One possibility is that households would like to respond to expected cash flows—as the theory predicts—however, they are bound to do so due to financial constraints. This idea is supported by the evidence of Zeldes (1989) that the correlation between income and consumption is weaker for financially constrained households. While this evidence is suggestive of the importance of financial constraints in household consumption decisions, there is no direct evidence showing that financial constraints prevent households from responding to expected cash flows. The main contribution of the study is the empirical setting: instead of examining the reaction of households only to the cash receipt event, we augment the analysis and document the response of households to the information event. We use a novel setting surrounding the filing date (information date) and receipt date of actual federal tax refunds. Implications for Policy and Practice By providing more evidence on how consumers react to news and realization of income changes and how it interacts with credit constraints, we hope to help the evaluation and the design of policies that have an impact on the household income such as tax rebates and labor regulation.   Katherine Samolyk, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Checking Account Activity, Account Costs, and Account Closure among Low- and Moderate-Income Households Summary and Findings  ⇓ This study uses proprietary data for a large random sample of consumer checking accounts at several depository institutions to examine the costs associated with checking account use and usage patterns that pose greater account-closure risks. We have unique information related to account ownership, including balances in other accounts with the bank and whether the account is opted-in to having standard overdraft coverage of debit card and ATM transactions. We also have 18 months of data on each debit and credit to the account. We use census data on the characteristics of the tract where the account holder resides. We conduct tests of factors associated with the incidence of overdraft-related fees and with involuntary account closure. Our findings indicate that being opted into debit card and ATM overdraft coverage is a key factor that predicts whether an accountholder had overdraft-related fees. We find that, in general, having “overdraft protection” in the form of a deposit account linked for the purpose of overdraft coverage was associated with lower overdraft-related costs; however customers having linked accounts with low balances tended to incur higher costs than customers with no linked accounts. Not surprisingly, we find that overdraft fees are a primary predictor of involuntary account closure. However, we also find that controlling for account-related factors, there are differences in checking account outcomes associated with tract demographics. Implications for Policy and Practice There is a growing body of research indicating that LMI households tend to be disproportionately represented among the unbanked and underbanked populations. A key goal of this study is to increase our understanding of banked LMI households and the costs and risks associated with bank account use. To this end, we focus on how account costs and account closures are related to the characteristics of the census tracts where the account holders reside. Our findings suggest that banked customers experiencing negative account outcomes may not look all that different from households that use alternative financial services (AFS) providers. In terms of univariate patterns, account holders residing in LMI neighborhoods were more likely to have overdraft-related fees and to experience involuntary account closure. They also tended to have lower monthly deposits and were less likely to have accounts linked for the purposes of overdraft protection than other account holders. In tests that control for account-related factors, we continue to find that account holders in LMI neighborhoods are more likely to incur worse outcomes. However, including tract characteristics measuring homeownership rates, household type, educational attainment, and racial composition attenuates the link between tract income and account outcomes. The tract characteristics associated with negative account outcomes are similar to those that researchers have found associated with the use of AFS credit products.

RESEARCH BREAKOUT B2

Improving the Mortgage Origination Process How fair is the mortgage origination process? This session will present one experiment and two program evaluations related to this process. The experiment investigates discrimination by mortgage originators; the evaluations address effectiveness of specific interventions in the mortgage origination process, as well as regulations governing it. The session aims to advance the discussion of ways to make the mortgage origination process fairer and the resulting mortgages sustainable. (A complementary practitioner session is offered on Friday: Breakout Session C3, “At a Crossroads: The Changing Mortgage Industry.”) Moderator: Lei Ding, Community Development Economic Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Speakers: Andrew Hanson, Marquette University Experimental Tests for Discrimination by Mortgage Loan Originators Summary and Findings  ⇓ We test for racial discrimination using a matched-pair correspondence experiment on Mortgage Loan Originators (MLOs). Our matched-pair experiment examines the response MLOs offer to initial contact from a potential client interested in obtaining information about a mortgage loan. We design the experiment to test for differential treatment by client race (white or African American) as well as differential treatment by credit score. Our results show that MLOs discriminate on the basis of race, and treat clients differently by their reported credit score. We find that on net, 1.8 percent of MLOs discriminate by not responding to inquiries from African Americans while responding to inquiries from white clients. We find larger net response differences across credit score types, with 8.5 percent of MLOs responding to the high credit score group while not responding to the no credit score group, and 4.0 percent of MLOs responding to the high credit score group while not responding to the low credit score group. We also find that credit score differences exacerbate differences in differential response between races. Examining the content of the response shows that whites are favored even among MLOs that respond to both inquiries. The primary difference in the content of response between whites and African Americans is the inclusion of details about the loan. Implications for Policy and Practice Finding discrimination in the lending market is likely to influence outcomes for minority borrowers throughout the home buying process. If African American borrowers are less likely to receive communication from an MLO and the MLO treats them differently when communication does occur, it makes submitting a loan application more difficult, and the remainder of the home purchase more arduous. In addition, our work shows that the growing importance of e-mail communication between clients and lenders, where in-person meetings are less and less common, does not mean that discrimination on the basis of race will not occur. The magnitude of discrimination we find is smaller than in recent in-person studies; however, the standard for compliance is much lower in our most basic test—we examine only if MLOs are willing to respond to an e-mail. Our findings confirm that discrimination still exists in the lending industry, and that it exists across a larger sample and a broader geographic scope than previous studies show. From a policy perspective, our results suggest that examining lending outcomes is not sufficient to uncover the level of discrimination that minorities face in the lending process. Our work also suggests that to uncover the full extent of discrimination in this market, multiple types of communication should be used in addition to in-person audits, and that enforcement of fair lending laws would be more robust if audits included other means of communication.   Lan Shi, The Urban Institute The Effect of Mortgage Broker Licensing On Loan Origination Standards and Defaults under the Originate-to-Distribute Model: Evidence from the U.S. Mortgage Market Summary and Findings  ⇓ By exploiting state-level variations, we examine whether stricter licensing requirements for loan brokers raise lending standards and consequently improve loan performances. Using data on private label securitized loans, we find that the requirements on registration, surety bonds, net worth, work experience, education, exam, and continuing education are all effective in raising loan origination standards. Requirements placed on employees are as effective as those on licensees. The effect is larger for subprime, low/no-doc, cash-out-refinance loans, and high-minority neighborhoods. Implications for Policy and Practice These findings point to the value of broker regulation when lenders' incentives to screen are compromised under the originate-to-distribute model.   Kenneth Temkin, Temkin Associates  Pre-Purchase Counseling Impacts on Mortgage Performance: Empirical Analysis of NeighborWorks America’s Experience Summary and Findings  ⇓ Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (doing business as NeighborWorks America, or NeighborWorks) has a nationwide network of affiliates offering pre-purchase homebuyer counseling throughout the country. Although the network members started to provide pre-purchase counseling in 1978, the impact of these services on mortgage performance has not yet been formally evaluated. Using information on about 75,000 loans originated between October 2007 and September 2009, Neil Mayer and Associates, together with Experian, analyzed the impact of pre-purchase counseling and education provided by NeighborWorks’ network based on the performance of counseled borrowers’ mortgages. It compares mortgage performance for counseled buyers over two years after the mortgages are originated to mortgage performance of borrowers who received no such services. Implications for Policy and Practice The findings show that NeighborWorks’ pre-purchase counseling and education works: Clients receiving pre-purchase counseling and education from NeighborWorks organizations are one-third less likely to become 90+ days delinquent over the two years after receiving their loan than are borrowers who do not receive pre-purchase counseling from NeighborWorks organizations. The finding is consistent across years of loan origin, even as the mortgage market changed in a period of financial crisis. It applies equally to first-time homebuyers and to repeat buyers. The findings support continued support for pre-purchase counseling. The results show positive effects of counseling taking place throughout the U.S., by a large number of separate non-profit organizations, rather than in a single place or organization. At the same time, the fact that the NeighborWorks’ network has common counseling standards provides for some consistency in the counseling services provided. Further work on the role of the specific nature of the counseling in determining performance, on performance over a longer period following loan origination, and on the indirect impacts of counseling through their effect on mortgage product choice could well be fruitful future directions for research.

PRACTITIONER BREAKOUT B3

Putting a Lid on It: Addressing Student Loan Debt What’s behind increasing student loan debt and how does it affect the near- and long-term financial well-being of borrowers? This session will address whether the investment in human capital is worth it for all students and what educational institutions and policymakers have done to address increasing costs. Finally, the panelists explore whether there are any alternative approaches to financing higher education. (A complementary research session is offered on Friday: Breakout Session C1, “Student Loans.”) Moderator: Wenhua Di, Senior Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Speakers: Bryan Ashton, Senior Program Coordinator, Student Wellness Center, The Ohio State University Justin Draeger, President, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators Scott Karol, Director of Program Evaluation and Technology , Clarifi

PRACTITIONER BREAKOUT B4

Nontraditional Tools in the Neighborhood Stabilization Toolbox The housing crisis has spurred a number of responses from the federal government, such as programs encouraging modifications and refinancing of distressed mortgages. Additionally, some communities are finding value in nontraditional means of stabilizing their neighborhoods, including shared-equity homeownership, community land trusts, private investors buying and rehabbing homes, and attracting more people to areas that suffered population declines. This session features researchers and policy experts on community land trusts, shared equity models, private sector investments in neighborhoods, and policies aimed at attracting immigrant and refugee populations to once-declining areas. How do these models work and in what conditions are they designed to succeed? What role can regulations play in furthering such efforts? Moderator & Speaker: Lou Tisler, Executive Director, Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland Speakers: Shelly Callahan, Executive Director, Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, Utica, NY Sean Dobson, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Amherst Holdings, LLC  Rob Pitingolo, Research Associate, The Urban Institute

LEARNING BREAKOUT B5

Dodd-Frank: How Banks are Coping with the Cost of Compliance This session features industry representatives’ perspectives (from a community bank, regional bank, and large banking organization) on how they are managing the costs of complying with consumer regulations resulting from the Dodd-Frank Act. How have these new regulations impacted the respective organizations’ product and service offerings? What regulations are giving them the most challenges? Moderator: Greg Bell, Consumer Compliance Banking Supervisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (Cincinnati Branch) Speakers: Michael Little, Chief Compliance Officer, PNC Financial Services Group Judy Steiner, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, FirstMerit Corporation Trent Troyer, President & Chief Executive Officer, First Federal Community Bank

5:45 – 7:00 P.M. RECEPTION

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Friday, September 20

8:00 – 9:00 A.M. BREAKFAST PANEL

Shining a Light on Regulatory Enforcement Join us for an interactive discussion over breakfast with a panel of federal and state regulators who will shed light on the gray area of policy known as regulatory enforcement. What factors are considered when agencies plan their enforcement strategies? How do agencies balance the potential unintended consequences that can result from blunt enforcement policies? The panelists’ brief presentations will be followed by a facilitated discussion, providing the audience with the opportunity to participate. Moderator: Paul Kaboth, Vice President and Community Development Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Speakers: Nadine Ballard, Associate Professor, Sinclair Community College Kristen Donoghue, Assistant Deputy Director for Policy and Strategy, Office of Enforcement, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Jon Steiger, Regional Director, Federal Trade Commission

9:00 – 10:30 A.M. CLOSING PLENARY

Consumer Finances and Protection in the New Regulatory Environment When does consumer protection work best? Some argue that consumers need as much protection from themselves as from profit-seeking companies. In this plenary session, national policy experts will discuss consumer protection in the new regulatory environment with a particular focus on the values and limits of regulations and mandatory information disclosures. When does the cost of product oversight outweigh the benefits? And how may the new rules affect the finances of low-income consumers?  Watch Moderator: Mark Sniderman, Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Speakers: Michael Barr, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School Vanessa Perry, Chair and Associate Professor of Marketing, George Washington University Jonathan Zinman, Visiting Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Professor, Dartmouth College

10:40 A.M.– 12:10 P.M. CONCURRENT SESSION C

RESEARCH BREAKOUT C1

Student Loans According to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, student debt was the only type of household debt that continued to rise through the Great Recession. By the end of 2012, almost a third of student loans in the repayment period were delinquent. Research presented in this session explains why, in spite of growing tuition fees and debt, there is no evidence in favor of a student loan bubble. This session also presents work on borrowers’ behavior with respect to their student loan debt when faced with other types of debt, as well as an analysis of regulations and policies to reduce the risks associated with educational investments. (This research session is a complement to Practitioner Session B3, “Putting a Lid on It: Addressing Student Loan Debt.”) Moderator: Vyacheslav Mikhed, Industry Specialist, Payment Cards Center, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Speakers: Daniel Kreisman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan Student Loans: Debt Crisis or Repayment Crisis Lance Lochner, Professor and Director, CIBC Centre for Human Capital and Productivity, Western University (Canada) Credit Constraints in Education Michael Simkovic, Associate Professor, Seton Hall University School of Law Risk-Based Student Loans Summary and Findings   ⇓ Federal Student Loan programs were established in the mid twentieth century to increase the supply of skilled labor, promote economic and technological development, and provide upward socio-economic mobility. However, Federal Student Loan programs have not incorporated many recent insights from financial, developmental, and labor economics that distinguish between different types of education. Because of this, Federal Student Loan programs and, more broadly, U.S. labor markets are not performing at their full potential. There is a mismatch between the skills workers have and employers’ needs, and this mismatch contributes to structural unemployment, reduced output, and higher student loan defaults. This mismatch is exacerbated by information asymmetries and perverse incentives of educational institutions to channel students toward the least expensive—and typically lowest value—fields of study. Implications for Policy and Practice This article argues that risk-based pricing of Federal Student Loans would increase efficiency. Risk-based pricing of student loans would signal the long-term financial risks inherent in different courses of study. This price signal would likely improve students’ ability to make informed decisions about the course of study that would best balance their innate abilities and individual preferences with postgraduate opportunities. Similarly, price signals would enhance post-secondary educational institutions’ ability to adjust their programs to improve their students’ prospects. Allocating educational resources more efficiently would enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the U.S. labor force. Over the long term, such efficiencies could increase the resources available for further investment in education and research. Transparent, risk-based student loan pricing could greatly benefit students and educational institutions, particularly if it were data-driven and sensitive to the values of equal opportunity and independent research that are central to the academic enterprise. This article discusses legal and policy reforms that could facilitate risk-based student loan pricing, potential hazards from a shift toward risk-based pricing, and safeguards that could help protect students and educators from abuse.

RESEARCH BREAKOUT C2

Mortgage Defaults and Labor Markets The papers in this session will report on research that examines the interaction between mortgage and housing markets and labor markets. They will also examine the relationship between unemployment, unemployment insurance, and mortgage default at both the micro and macro levels. Moderator: Timothy Dunne, Research Economist and Policy Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Speakers: Kyle Herkenhoff, PhD Candidate, Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles Foreclosure Delay and U.S. Unemployment Summary and Findings   ⇓ Through a purely positive lens, we study and document the growing trend of mortgagors who skip mortgage payments as an extra source of "informal" unemployment insurance during the 2007 recession and the subsequent recovery. In a dynamic model, we capture this behavior by treating both delinquency and foreclosure not as one period events, but rather as protracted and potentially reversible episodes that influence job search behavior and wage acceptance decisions. After calibrating, we find that the observed foreclosure delays increase the unemployment rate by an additional ½ percent. With delays, the stock of delinquent loans more than doubles. On the positive side, by providing more self-insurance, households enter better employment matches, which increases both output and homeownership. Implications for Policy and Practice With plausible economic turbulence, we find significant and persistent effects from the foreclosure delays on the unemployment rate. We also find that foreclosure delays increase both output and homeownership. By quantifying the relative magnitudes of each of these benefits and drawbacks, we provide policy makers with the ability to make better-informed decisions regarding mortgage intervention. These results imply that if there are two economic targets, homeownership and employment, the mortgage interventions studied in this paper improve progress along one dimension while detracting along the other. While the relative weights placed by policy makers on these targets ultimately guides the policy prescription, further normative work is required in a General Equilibrium framework capable of producing welfare numbers.   Brian Melzer, Assistant Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University Unemployment Insurance and Consumer Credit Summary and Findings   ⇓ This paper examines the impact of unemployment insurance (UI) on credit markets. Exploiting heterogeneity in the generosity of unemployment insurance across U.S. states and over time, we find that UI helps the unemployed avoid defaulting on their debt. For every $1,000 increase in maximum UI benefits, mortgage delinquency drops by 2 percent and the eviction rate drops by 10 percent among unemployed homeowners. We also find that lenders respond to this decline in default risk by expanding credit access for low-income households who are at risk of being laid off. For every $1,000 increase in maximum UI benefits, low-income households are offered $900 (4%) more in credit card debt as well as lower interest rates on credit cards and mortgages (0.5% reduction). These results show that the poor benefit from the insurance provided by a stronger social safety net even without experiencing a negative shock. Implications for Policy and Practice Our results imply that unemployment insurance payments can play an important role in mitigating mortgage delinquency and default. This finding is particularly notable in light of the recent housing downturn, during which policies such as the HAMP mortgage modification program were put in place to help distressed mortgage borrowers and avoid foreclosures. Compared to the HAMP program, unemployment insurance payments are an order of magnitude larger. While HAMP is estimated to disburse $16 billion, unemployment insurance payments over the last five years have exceeded $500 billion, in large part due to federally financed extensions of unemployment benefits periods.   Chao Yue Tian, Research Associate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Differential Impacts of Structural and Cyclical Unemployment on Mortgage Default and Prepayment Summary and Findings   ⇓ The Great Recession (fourth quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of 2009) has been characterized by high rates of foreclosures and unemployment. Using a sample of community reinvestment loans, we examine the impact of structural unemployment and cyclical unemployment on mortgage terminations (default and prepayment). We find that mortgage default and prepayment are more sensitive to structural unemployment than cyclical unemployment. In addition, depending on whether structural unemployment is high or low, borrowers and lenders react differently to incentives to terminate a loan. Implications for Policy and Practice In sum, this study provides empirical evidence of the link between long-run or structural unemployment and mortgage termination through default and prepayment. The results indicate that if attempts to intervene in the labor market are to have meaningful impacts on mortgage markets, the intervention should be targeted at structural components of local unemployment.

PRACTITIONER BREAKOUT C3

At a Crossroads: The Changing Mortgage Industry In the wake of the Dodd-Frank Act, the mortgage regulatory environment is changing dramatically. Join us as we explore how the current environment is affecting mortgage lending and how upcoming regulatory changes will impact mortgage credit in the future. Panelists will discuss the key mortgage regulations and what the implications are for borrowers, lenders, and communities as the market adjusts. (This practitioner session is a complement to Research Session B2, “Improving the Mortgage Origination Process.”) Moderator: Ernie Hogan, Executive Director, Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group Speakers: Ken Benton, Senior Consumer Regulations Specialist, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Diane Minunni Callan, Vice President, Regulatory Information Services, TD Bank

PRACTITIONER BREAKOUT C4

Small Business Financing Trends Recent discussions about small business have focused on the challenges they face obtaining credit in today’s marketplace. In this session, experts will discuss the frictions slowing the flow of this credit, as well as the variety of ways and recent trends in how small businesses are operating and obtaining financing. Moderator: Anita Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Small Business Trends, LLC Speakers: Ty Barksdale, Vice President of Business Banking, Sutton Bank Linda O’Connell, Small Business Banking Manager, Barlow Research Associates, Inc. Ann Marie Wiersch, Policy Analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

12:15 – 1:30 P.M. LUNCH & CLOSING ADDRESS

Keynote speaker: Eldar Shafir, William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University Dr. Shafir has long focused on how people make judgments and decisions in times of uncertainty, and on the application of behavioral research to policy. Watch