New federal effort targets financial issues facing rural areas; agency seeks advice from rural stakeholders

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent agency Congress created during the Great Recesssion, is launching an initiative to focus on financial issues that rural Americans disproportionately face, Shawn Sebastian reports.

There is substantial need for intervention, since larger economic trends in the past few decades have disproportionately hurt rural areas, Sebastian writes: "The number of jobs in rural areas have still not fully recovered from the shock of the 2008 financial crash and job growth in rural areas has been less than a third of the rate of job growth in urban areas. Rural wages are lower , and rural poverty rates are higher than in non-rural areas and the gap is growing . Increasing corporate consolidation across the economy has hit rural areas particularly hard, suppressing wages and leaving rural people with fewer employment options . In addition, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on rural populations have been severe, with significant negative impacts on unemployment and the economic outlook."

The CFPB asked rural organizations about challenges to rural financial resiliency, and heard the same answers cropping up over and over. That includes expanding rural banking deserts; discriminatory and predatory practices from agricultural lenders; and a lack of quality, affordable housing.

It's unclear what actions the CFPB is taking to address these issues, but defining the scope of the problem seems to be a good first step. In the meantime, the agency is still seeking feedback if you want to tell them about other issues your rural area is facing.