Jul 8, 2020 | Payday Lending, Public Policy Blog
On July 7, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had revoked the mandatory underwriting provisions of the 2017 Payday Lending Rule. This removed the requirement that payday lenders first determine a potential borrower’s ability to repay...
Apr 4, 2017 | Press Releases
Southern Bancorp and FHLB Dallas provide funds for needed home renovation ARKADELPHIA, ARKANSAS, March 31, 2017 — Retired Sergeant Joe Braswell, now 53, wasn’t a young recruit in 2003 when servicemen and women were getting called to fight in the Iraq War. In fact, he...
Jan 30, 2015 | IDAs and CSAs, Public Policy Blog
This week, the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) released its annual Assets and Opportunity Scorecard. The Scorecard provides a comprehensive look at Americans’ capacity to accumulate wealth by examining how well residents prosper in the 50 states and...
Dec 19, 2014 | Public Policy Blog
As a rural community bank and U.S. Treasury certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Southern is fully aware of the importance of CDFIs in rural markets throughout the country. In our recent paper, Banking in Rural America: Insight from a CDFI,...
Dec 12, 2014 | Public Assistance Asset Limit Reform, Public Policy Blog
In support of Southern’s mission to create economic opportunity and promote financial security, our policy team worked to pass legislation (Act 535 of 2013) during Arkansas’s 89th General Assembly that required the Department of Human Services (DHS) to conduct a study...
Nov 21, 2014 | Poverty and Economic Mobility, Public Policy Blog
In October, the Census Bureau released the poverty rate based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). This snapshot of poverty in America, which varies somewhat from the standard official measure released in September, accounts for regional differences in...
Nov 19, 2014 | Public Policy Blog, The Un- and Underbanked
As a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) seeking to provide affordable and accessible financial services to Arkansans and Mississippians, a recently released FDIC survey on unbanked and underbanked households in America caught our attention. The study...
Nov 17, 2014 | IDAs and CSAs, Public Policy Blog
Promoting savings as a way of building assets has long been a focus of Southern Bancorp’s work, which is why we were so excited to read CFED President Andrea Levere’s op-ed in last month’s New York Times that highlighted the effectiveness of Children’s Savings...
Oct 24, 2014 | Public Policy Blog
This is National Save for Retirement Week, a national effort to increase personal financial literacy and raise public awareness about the importance of saving for retirement.[1] This week provides an opportunity for employees to reflect on their personal retirement...
Oct 17, 2014 | Past Policy Efforts, Public Policy Blog
As a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Southern seeks to support efforts focused on housing availability and accessibility for low- and moderate-income families in both Arkansas and Mississippi. We do so because of our belief that affordable housing...
