Bill Bynum, CEO of the 28,000-member, $169 million HopeCommunity Credit Union, will help welcome Director RichardCordray and other officials from the Consumer Financial ProtectionBureau to Mississippi on Wednesday.

The meeting – at which the bureau seeks to learn more about thefinancial challenges facing residents of the Delta and the ruralSouth – is set for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT in the Social ScienceBuilding Auditorium at Mississippi Valley State University in IttaBena, Miss.

Hope Community is headquarteredin Jackson, Miss., and has branches in four Mississippi Deltastates. Bynum is also vice chairman of the CFPB's ConsumerAdvisory Board.

“It is significant that Director Cordray chose to hold thismeeting in Mississippi. The financial environment in the Mid-Southis unique, particularly with regard to the challenges that confrontour rural, elderly, low-income and minority residents,” Bynum saidin an announcement.

According to the Mississippi Economic Policy Center, the ratesMississippians pay for small dollar loans are among the highest inthe Southeast. Also, the percentage of unbanked and underbankedresidents in the state is among the highest in the country, Bynumadded.