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* Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. By Isabel Wilkerson. Aug. 2020.496p. Random, $32 (9780593230251). 305.5. 'Just as DNA is the code of instructions for cell development, caste is the [...]

* Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America. By Stacey Abrams. June 2020.304p. Holt, $27.99 (9781250257703). 324.60973. When Abrams' run for the governorship of [...]

* Book of the Little Axe. By Lauren Francis-Sharma. May 2020. 400p. Atlantic, $26 (9780802129369). Rosa Rendon never quite fit her proscribed place in 1790s Trinidad. Her passion for horses [...]

The Exhibition of Persephone Q. By Jessi Jezewska Stevens. Feb. 2020. 224p. Farrar, $26 (9780374150921). In the paranoia of haunted post-9/11 New York, Percy feels adrift. After the pregnant copy [...]

The latest Libraries Transform Book Pick, an award presented by Booklist and the American Library Association in a partnership with Overdrive, is Book of the Little Axe, by Lauren Francis-Sharma [...]

* Black Bottom Saints. By Alice Randall. Aug. 2020.368p. Amistad, $26.99 (9780062968623); e-book, $13.99 (9780062968654). The heyday of twentieth-century Black culture is usually associated with New York's Harlem and Chicago's [...]

* The Awkward Black Man. By Walter Mosley. Sept. 2020. 336p. Grove, $26 (9780802149565). In this collection of simple and complex portraits of a wide range of Black men, Mosley, [...]

The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless Battle between the White House and the Media from the Founding Fathers to Fake News. By Harold Holzer. Aug. 2020. 576p. Dutton, $29 [...]

* The Pull of the Stars. By Emma Donoghue. July 2020. 288p. Little, Brown, 528 (9780316499019). Julia Powell, a dedicated nurse at a Dublin hospital in 1918, pours her energy [...]

* Hamnet. By Maggie O'Farrell. July 2020. 320p. Knopf, $26.95 (9780525657606). 'How were they to know that Hamnet was the pin holding them together?' One ordinary afternoon in 1596, 11-year-old [...]

* For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics. By Donna Brazile and others. Oct. 2018. 288p. St. Martin's, $28.99 (9781250137715). 320. This trailblazing crew of black women, self-described 'Colored Girls,' [...]

The need for banks to adopt more efficient loss mitigation practices is not driven by rate of delinquencies and foreclosures as the number of delinquent mortgage borrowers is found to be declining. Close attention to loss mitigation is rather motivated by several factors that include slack underwriting standards, increasing demand for risk-based pricing on mortgage-backed securities and escalating use of technology in the mortgage lending process., Several Factors - Including Loosening of Underwriting Standards, Growing Demand for Risk-based Pricing on Mortgage-Backed Securities and Growing Use of Technology in the Mortgage Lending Process - Are Combining to [...]

Many innovative lenders are now focusing on the subprime market which offers potential borrowers a wider product line and better profits in place of the overall mortgage loan. Community bankers should be aware of the pros and cons of subprime lending before making the move. The benefits of subprime lending include the charging of higher rates and fees to borrowers with higher servicing fees and poor credit histories, while the down side of subprime lending includes more labor-intensive servicing and the risk of higher delinquency and foreclosure rates., While Overall Mortgage Loan Demand Is Expected to Wane in Future Years, Demand for B- and C-Grade Loans Is Expected to Surge Upward. Many Innovative Lenders Have Already Found that [...]

The role of technology on the mortgage lending industry was presented. Technological innovations and computerization can help lending institutions in providing their clients with a faster, more efficient, and more accurate service at a lower cost. These new technologies can be applied in the processing of mortgage applications, in their underwriting and calling system, in credit reporting, and in recording mortgage transfer., Technological Innovation Has Brought Great Change to the Mortgage Lending Industry. The Pioneering of More Powerful Loan Management Software and Internet Loan Origination Tools Could Lead Lenders and Borrowers Alike [...]

The Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) System is seeking to improve its reputation by introducing new products in an attempt to become more responsive to its customers. Morever, FHLBanks are seeking out new members by offering more products that are both flexible and tailored to customer needs. Although products normally differ from district to district, they tend to meet three primary needs, namely, managing interest rate risk, managing mortgage prepayments, and facilitating innovative mortgage products., The FHLB System Once Operated in a Sort of Seller's Market. It Offered Products That Member Institutions Could Basically Take or Leave. Today, Driven to Rebuild Lagging Advance Borrowings, the [...]

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp and the Federal National Mortgage Assn are faced with the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 which requires them to make sure that 30% of loans purchased each year are made to low-income and average-income borrowers and 30% of loan purchases come from central cities. Both agencies view the 'twin-30' goals as a chance to develop new markets. Community lenders see these new goals will meet the needs of underserved housing markets., Even though Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Are Facing New 'Twin-30' Requirements, Portfolio Lenders Remain Skeptical of the Agencies' Ability to Meet the Particular Needs of Central City and Low- [...]

* The Freedom Artist. By Ben Okri. Feb. 2020.336p. Akashic, $30.95 (9781617757914); paper, $16.95 (9781617757921). In an unspecified time and place, a persistent young woman, Amalantis, is arrested for asking [...]

Savings institutions are facing tough competition from mortgage bankers in the loan production market. Mortgage bankers took 51% of market share in 1992, outnumbering all loan production corporations. Reasons cited for this include the consolidation of savings institutions and the low interest rates of mortgage banks. Savings banks are now turning to the marketing practices of the mortgage banking industry, that is originating loans for sale and concentrating singularly on loan production.

Qualified thrift members of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) System can expect numerous changes in the system as the future poses new challenges to FHLB's operation. Membership requirements will be more flexible and more new products and services will be promoted to increase the banks' profitability as portfolio lenders. In addition, the system will focus more on community development. At present, the US Congress has been supportive to FHLBs' advancement as indicated in the number of legislations that they have introduced in promoting the goals of FHLBs., Expect Change in the FHLB System as Strategic Studies Come to Fruition. Yet Exactly When? Remains a Question. HAVING GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO CHANGE BY THE UPHEAVALS THE savings institution business [...]

The banking laws and regulations which emphasize interest-rate risk management and mark-to-market accounting have influenced banks to consider secondary market as a risk-management tool. The secondary market serves as an outlet to sell mortgages and eliminate the interest-rate risk. It helps the institutions meet their asset/liability management needs specifically, managing the interest-rate risk., Given the Growing Emphasis on Interest-Rate Risk and Mark-to-Market Accounting, Should Your Institution Rethink Its Secondary Mortgage Marketing Strategies? When regulators began to look at risk as a part of [...]

* Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance. By Zora Neale Hurston. Ed. by Genevieve West. Jan. 2020.288p. Amistad, $25.99 (9780062915795). Best known for [...]

Everywhere You Don't Belong. By Gabriel Bump. Feb. 2020. 272p. Algonquin, $25.95 (9781616208790). Claude is a dreamer, often labeled as soft in his Chicago neighborhood. When his mother abandons him, [...]

* The Water Dancer. By Ta-Nehisi Coates. Sept. 2019.432p. Ballantine/One World, $28 (9780399590597). Hiram Walker is the son of an enslaved woman and her slave master, owner of a prominent [...]

* Parallel Worlds: The Remarkable Gibbs-Hunts and the Enduring Insignificance of Melanin. By Adele Logan Alexander. Feb. 2010. 384p. illus. Univ. of Virginia, $29.95 (9780813928876). 323.092. William Hunt was the [...]

Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal. By Yuval Taylor. Mar. 2019.304p. illus. Norton, $27.95 (9780393243918). 813.52. Fascinating in their own rights as major literary figures, Langston Hughes [...]

Trying to define community banking is, well, pretty much like stopping to think about breathing. Air in. Air out. It just happens. You do it and don't think about it. [...]

The merger of the National Council of Community Bankers and the US League of Savings Institutions resulted into the Savings and Community Bankers of America of which Gerald J. Pittenger serves as chairman. Pittinger believes that financial institutions are being over-regulated while expected to compete with unregulated entities. Quality customer service through community banking is the key to facing challenges posed by regulation, the low-rate environment and the changing role of savings institutions., This year, Gerald J. Pittenger faces a dual management challenge: He is the elected chairman of the Savings & Community Bankers of America, Washington, D.C., a new organization that resulted [...]

Savings institutions should learn to communicate their views regarding proposed legislation which will have a direct effect on them. Legislators and their staff take these comments into account when formulating regulations, and silence would be tantamount to saying that the proposed new regulations have no impact. Although not all letters will bring desired results, the effect of such letters cannot be underestimated as they have a significant impact., In this election year, it's easy to see parallels between voting and 'commenting.' Like voting, writing comment letters is an individual's only means of voicing an opinion about what a [...]

Even for those of us who aren't seasoned soothsayers, the future of the secondary mortgage market isn't too hard to read. What seems to be in the cards is more [...]

With every new law and regulation, each change in interest rates and every pronouncement by the accounting standards bodies, the job of the chief financial officer increases in complexity. That [...]

These days, it pays to be hard-boiled about quality lending. Those lenders that make and sell grade-a mortgages are earning good reputations that translate into more business under more favorable [...]

The lack of uniformity in the multifamily mortgage market has long been a major drawback to the securitization of these loans. Only 9% of outstanding multifamily mortgages has been securitized [...]

Lenders, regulators and community groups struggle to master the right techniques Mortgage underwriters often describe their business as an art -- not a science. So, it's no surprise that given [...]

Even after being toughened by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, the qualified thrift lender test was a hurdle that most savings institutions could easily scale. [...]

While declinig home values prompt tougher FNMA and FHLMC underwriting rules, record loan volumes reduce their impact When the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation [...]

Low Rates Limit Lending Routes The last time savings institutions found themselves so thoroughly in 30-year fixed rate territory, they crashed head-on into a devastating earnings crisis that prompted Congress [...]

Data centers respond to user ratings Leading providers answer your concerns about improving service delivery Finding out how SI readers rate their data centers was a revealing exercise. (For the [...]

Managers face facts: It's Survival of the Trimmest Savings institution managers are all watching their figures -- as in costs, not physiques. This business began to earnestly focus on cost [...]

For much of its life, the mortgage-backed security was not unlike a household product: Periodically, claims of 'new' and 'improved' got tacked onto its package -- but nothing really changed. [...]

Affordable Housing Can Spell Good Business Congress spent a lot of time this year debating whether to soften or toughen the rules of the game under the Community Reinvestment Act. [...]