4444ArlingtonBlvdArlington,Virginia22204

www.voice‐iaf.org

MEDIA RELEASE ForImmediateRelease

Contact: Frank McMillan: 773-412-2797 Jennifer Knox: 608-334-4507

NORTHERN VIRGINIA RELIGIOUS LEADERS FIRE GENERAL ELECTRIC CEO JEFF IMMELT FROM

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOBS & COMPETIVENESS COUNCIL FOR HIS ROLE IN THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS IN PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA

While President Obama speaks about foreclosure today, his Jobs Advisor has escaped accountability for his role in the same crisis.

GE was Worst Lender in Prince William Area During Subprime Lending Spree, Targeting Recent Immigrants

On the same day that President Obama touted his work to address the foreclosure crisis nationwide, 75 Clergy and lay leaders from Northern Virginia marched to the Washington Offices of General Electric to fire Jeffrey Immelt (CEO of General Electric) from his job as Chair of the President’s Council on Jobs & Competitiveness. They delivered a GIANT PINK SLIP, because Mr. Immelt has refused to take responsibility for his role in the sub-prime loan and foreclosure crisis in the Prince William area of Virginia. Leaders from Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) have identified General Electric as the worst lender in the Prince William area (more foreclosures than any single company, one of highest foreclosure rates). Because GE was not part of the national Attorneys General Settlement, the company has not yet been held to account for its predatory lending and documented fraud. GE is the only financial institution that has not committed to negotiate seriously with VOICE since local leaders launched their foreclosure and subprime lending accountability campaign in April 2011.

Kathy Clark, a retired teacher from West Gate Elementary and a member of Buckhall UMC, described the impact of GE on her school community, “I want to know how Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, could make loans that were structured to fail. I want to know why almost none of the families who got his loans are still here. I want to know how 100% of the loans he made in 2006 in our school community went into foreclosure. But most of all, I want to know why he refuses to take responsibility for his actions.”

Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd, a VOICE leader and Pastor at Bull Run Unitarian Universalists in Manassas, explained further, “All of us here today are leaders. Some of us are pastors of congregations. But Mr. Immelt has forgotten the most important characteristic of leadership. When it gets bad, you don’t run away. Real leaders don’t run. They stay, they take responsibility, and they fix what they have broken.”

Over the last 18 months VOICE has organized to hold financial institutions accountable for the foreclosure crisis in Prince William County, which had the most foreclosures in Virginia--16,000. VOICE research has documented that General Electric through its subsidiary WMC Mortgage, the 10th US largest sub-prime lender in the country, devastated Prince William County with its sub-prime lending. Specifically, GE/WMC:

• originated $715 million of loans to Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Parkfamilies (At least 92.3% of these loans were high cost, predatory loans). 88+% of the loans originated by WMC Mortgage were made to people of color, primarily families of recent immigrants and African-American homebuyers; and had one of the highest foreclosure rates in Prince William (16.8% overall, and 27.4% for the worst loans it was making in 2006). In some neighborhoods, VOICE has found that 90% of families who received GE loans no longer live there.

As part of their foreclosure and subprime lending accountability campaign, VOICE is challenging GE/WMC, Bank of America, and JP Morgan to reinvest $300-$500 million in Prince William County, VA to fund housing counselors to work with distressed borrowers, to refinance predatory and underwater loans, rebuild homeownership rates, to redevelop blighted properties, and to build affordable housing to address the affordable housing crisis caused by GE/WMC's foreclosures and predatory lending.

VOICE is a broad-based coalition of 48 religious and civic organizations representing 125,000 families in Northern Virginia. To date, VOICE's foreclosure and bank accountability organizing has secured loan modification reforms from Bank of America and JP

Morgan Chase--producing more than 100 loan modifications for struggling homeowners, $288,000 investment from financial institutions to fund non-profit housing counselors in 2012, documented rampant foreclosure fraud through robo-signing, and begun negotiations with Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase about VOICE's $300-$500 million reinvestment demands with public support from Senator Mark Warner, a member of the US Senate Banking Committee.

###