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As many of you know, community groups in Illinois won a landmark anti-predatory lending ordinance in Chicago this past August. We are happy to report that we have now won anti-predatory lending regulations, including a prohibition on single-premium credit insurance for the entire state of Illinois.

This victory shows the strength and power of community groups when they band together to take down loan sharks.

Predatory lenders rip off borrowers with high interest rates and thousands of dollars in hidden fees. They have been coming into Illinois like a plague of locusts. Out of 146 lenders doing business in Illinois, only 9 are based in Illinois. One hundred and thirty seven are coming from out of state to make predatory loans and take people's homes.

But they won't be able to anymore, whether they are based in or outside of Illinois. The anti-predatory lending regulations introduced by Gov. George Ryan go into effect on May 17, 2001, and apply to state-chartered banks and most mortgage lenders. They should go a long way toward stopping Illinois' foreclosure epidemic. Industry groups such as the Illinois Bankers Association fought long and hard to keep the regulations from being passed.

We are very pleased that Ryan, State Sen. Barack Obama, Speaker Michael Madigan, and all the members of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules who voted for the regulations had the guts to stand up to the industry groups and pass regulations that will prevent thousands of Illinois homeowners from losing their homes due to predatory lending.

Three Chicago banks: LaSalle Bank, Harris Bank, and Northern Trust Co., came out publicly in support of the regulations. We have had Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) agreements with these banks for sixteen years and have gotten over $1 billion dollars out in loans to Chicago neighborhoods.

The heat is being turned up on predatory lenders both in various states across the country and at the federal level. In an huge move, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Citigroup for the predatory lending practices committed by the Associates, which it bought last August. The Associates are the largest group of predatory lenders that have takend millions of dollars from our communities through bad loans.

While Citigroup lobbied successfully to weaken the Chicago and Cook County anti-predatory lending ordinances, it did not have success at the state level and we won the important prohibition on single-premium credit insurance that was left out of the Chicago and Cook County anti-predatory lending ordinances.

We will continue to fight Citigroup on a local and national level to get them to clean up their destructive lending practices and let them know that there's no place to hide.

This is a great victory for all of the community groups that have been working so hard to curb predatory practices in Illinois and across the nation. We'll continue our hard work to make sure that the regulations are enforced, and the predatory lenders are stopped.