The Supreme Court intends to hear a case whose effect could dramatically undercut most attempts to prove discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.

In Magner v. Gallagher, plaintiffs are petitioning the Supreme Court to reverse a judgment made by a lower appeals court that  nullified (are you following the triple-negative legalese?) a (more…)

The amount of dollars loaded on to prepaid cards by US consumers continues to show no signs of slowing down. One consulting group says that prepaid card users put more than $57 billion in loads on to their cards in 2011.

The sum of loads is yet to plateau. In 2010, prepaid card holders put almost $41 billion on to (more…)

Somalis in Minneapolis protested in the streets of St. Paul, angry that local banks will no longer honor hawala transactions.

Minneapolis-St. Paul, a center in the United States for hawala transactions, is the home for many Somalis that want to send money back to their relatives.

A Hawala Dar sending money from Peshawar.

The hawala system allows people to move sums of money across borders with no formal record of any kind. It presents a challenging question. On the face, it seems like a system tailor-made for criminal networks such as Al-Queda. On the other hand, it serves as a substitute mode of money remittance to countries where there is no real banking system.

How does it work? A person finds his local hawala dar – a name for a money transmitter whose profession has often been passed down for generations – and gives him a sum of money. The halawa dar contacts another hawala dar and asks him to advance money to the intended recipient. The hawala dars never exchange money. The only record is among dars. Each keeps a running tab with the other. The debts are cleared through (more…)

The news that customers will be able to get free tax preparation service has prompted an intense and varied reaction among consumer advocates.

It is the variation in those reactions, from groups that often speak in lockstep with eachother, that seems so unusual. Some groups appear to acknowledge the value of (more…)

Although loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration can be the best way to buy a home with a low down payment, its lending guidelines are suddenly very strict.

The Neighborhood Watch guidelines mean that the average credit score for a loan (more…)