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Hundreds of NPA leaders from 10 cities waged a National Day of Action against the predatory and discriminatory lending practices of Citigroup, the country's largest financial services company.

On Feb. 15 NPA groups flooded the offices of Citigroup's high-interest lenders, The Associates and CitiFinancial, demanding a meeting with Citigroup executive Robert Rubin.

The Organization for a New Eastside (ONE), in Indianapolis won an immediate victory from their action when CitiFinancial agreed to stop collecting payments on a fraudulent loan made to local leader, Vicky Noer.

Noer and her husband purchased a house in 2000 with a loan of $65,000 at a 12 percent interest rate from The Associates. Prior to the Day of Action, lending officers had said the home was accurately valued at $65,000, despite a survey of appraisals determining that most homes in the depressed area are worth less than $30,000. A mortgage broker sold the Noer's the house, which was a former abandoned building, after he bought it for only $1,200 at a county tax sale.

"They may have settled my loan but there are other people out there in worse shape than me and I want their loans settled also," Noer said after the action.

Organizations from both central Illinois and Chicago had more than 60 people on the hits to their local sub prime lenders. Both the local branches immediately contacted their immediate superiors rather than going straight to the national office and Rubin as the NPA groups demanded.

Members of the Central Illinois Organizing Project (CIOP), including clergy, union, and civil rights groups from six cities in downstate Illinois took over a CitiFinancial branch in Bloomington.

"We have been contacted by some very unhappy people with loans with interest rates as high as 21 percent. We just want good loans for good people," said CIOP leader Jack Porter.

Chicago leaders from the South Austin Coalition Community Council (SACCC) and Nobel Neighbors laid siege first to a Citibank and then to a CitiFinancial branch in adjacent western suburbs.

"The poorer areas already have problems-including foreclosed and abandoned property-and all Citigroup is doing with these high-interest loans is adding to the problems," said Frankie Freeney, a Westside Chicago minister with Nobel Neighbors.

Freeney is facing foreclosure on her 16 percent interest home repair loan from The Associates. Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN) attracted the attention of newspaper, television, and radio reporters when 25 leaders marched into their local CitiFinancial branch. Syracuse borrowers used to have access to affordable, prime-rate loans before Citibank closed its last branch on the edge of town, leaving the area with only high-interest lender CitiFinancial.

"Citibank is discriminating in banking practices," said Angelica Weathersby, a SUN leader. "They don't offer full-scale banking services where you get prime-rate mortgages. They offer storefronts that offer higher rates that's causing people to lose their home."

Local Citigroup officials told NPA-affiliated organizations that their superiors instructed them not to negotiate with protesters. East Side Organizing Project leader Henry Hankins in Cleveland pulled out a one-dollar bill, which is embossed with Rubin's name, to impress upon CitiFinancial employees that their boss once held the position of secretary of the U.S. Treasury.

Other groups participating in the National Day of Action against Citigroup included: Communities United for Action, Cincinnati, OH; Des Moines Citizens for Community Improvement, Des Moines, IA; East Akron Community House, Akron, OH; The North West Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, New York; Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, Pittsburgh, PA.