This Week in Finance News: 13 Stories You Need to See

A roundup of the week's most newsworthy financial industry press releases from PR 
Newswire, including updates on rent prices outpacing income growth, delayed retirement, 
and food inflation.

NEW YORK, June 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the finance industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.

The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.

1. Rent Prices Have Outpaced Income Growth in 46 of the 50 Most-Populous U.S. Metros Since 2009
   Rent prices have surged by 208% since 1985 from $378 a month to $1,163, outpacing inflation by 40% and income by 7%, according to new research from Real Estate Witch.
2. Google Cloud Launches AI-Powered Anti Money Laundering Product for Financial Institutions 
   The product handles the complexities of running ML at scale, while also providing enriched explanations of the outputs to enable financial institutions to expedite the investigation workflow and improve the customer experience. To date, the solution has been put in production across several geographical regulatory jurisdictions.
3. Midyear 2023 Investment Outlook: After a Tough 2022, Financial Markets Remain Challenged by Multiple Threats
   The resilience of many world economies is being tested as the effects of a steep U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hiking cycle and a shift from quantitative easing to quantitative tightening are still being felt.  Labor markets remain strong and are an important signal for investors to watch as any softening could increase the risk of a recession.
4. Operation HOPE Announces Launch of 'The 1865 Project'
   With a goal of opening 1,000 offices by 2030, Operation HOPE's mission is to expand economic opportunity in underserved communities through financial education and empowerment by offering programs that create stabilized communities and financial stakeholders.
5. Affordability crisis: United States needs 4.3 million more homes 
   "The U.S. housing market is like a high-stakes version of the game musical chairs," said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow. "There are simply not enough homes for millions of people. Unless we address the shortage of smaller, more-affordable, starter-type homes, we risk leaving families without a seat — and it will only get worse over time."
6. A Quarter of Investors Near Retirement are Delaying Plans due to Financial Uncertainty
   A quarter (25%) of pre-retirees – defined as non-retired investors aged 55-65 – are planning to retire later than expected, and another 15% are unsure if they will ever retire.
7. Empowering Widows to Become Responsible for Managing Their Finances
   For many women, the road to poverty begins after their spouse dies, when household income generally declines by about 40% due to changes in Social Security benefits, spouse's retirement income, and earnings. Critical financial choices around housing, healthcare, benefits, and insurance must be considered carefully and thought about by women earlier during their lifetime and working years.
8. Food Inflation, Hottest Since 1978, Gives Consumers a Gut Check
   It's summertime but the grilling isn't easy. As families across America prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July with the time-honored tradition of a backyard barbecue, it's hard to ignore that near-record food prices have taken a big bite out of household budgets. Up and down the supermarket aisles, we have seen hefty price tags that are difficult to stomach.
9. Opportunity Finance Network Launches NextGen CDFI Workforce Initiative
   As the U.S. workforce continues to change and evolve, industries across the economy struggle with the need for a skilled workforce, and community development finance is no exception. To respond to this need, Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) has launched the NextGen CDFI Workforce initiative with a $5 million grant from the Citi Foundation through its Community Finance Innovation Fund.
10. MPOWER Financing Launches Non-profit Arm to Expand Scholarships to Global Citizens
    MPOWER Financing, a mission-driven fintech firm and a leading provider of scholarships and no-cosigner loans to promising students from around the world, has announced the launch of the Global Citizens Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit scholarship fund designed to support refugee, DACA, and international students more broadly, seeking educational opportunities in the U.S. and Canada.
11. Webinar: Qualifying for COVID-19 Relief Funds
    Released in March 2020, the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was created as part of the CARES Act in response to the economic impact of the pandemic. This program was designed to encourage employers to keep their employees on the payroll, even if they had to suspend or restrict business operations due to COVID-19 executive orders or experienced a significant decline in revenue.
12. Rose Financial Solutions redefines Finance as a Service and launches its next-generation platform, Easby®
    The cutting-edge solution marks a significant milestone in the FaaS industry by enabling organizations to future-proof their back offices throughout their lifecycles from start-up to exit. Ted Rose, Founder, President, and CEO of ROSE, said, "By reducing complexity, Easby improves financial clarity and significantly reduces the disruptions clients experience due to their growth and the evolving technology landscape."
13. NFEC Issues New Policy and Framework for High School Financial Literacy Mandates
    The NFEC undertook this project due to the lack of quality standards currently required for financial education. While benchmarks have long been in place for typical K-12 subjects, guidelines for financial literacy programming remain deficient.

Read more of the latest finance-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNfinance on Twitter.

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