AP News, January 29, 2020: Crucial bank law softened under Trump proposal
The Trump Administration is proposing changes to a decades-old law designed to keep banks from discriminating against the poor and disadvantaged, but critics argue the changes could make it easier for banks to potentially ignore the under-served, particularly communities of color.
The Community Reinvestment Act has, over the past four decades, spurred hundreds of billions of dollars in lending to low- and middle-income communities. But it’s out of date and in need of an overhaul.
Some community advocates say the changes the administration is proposing will allow banks to meet the law’s criteria without making the types of loans that are most beneficial to the communities they serve. Worse, critics argue that discrimination against poor and communities of color by the banking industry could increase under the proposal.
It’s the broadening of what would qualify under CRA that has community groups upset.
“We all agree there needed to be a list. The problem is what the (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) has put on that list,” said Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an umbrella group for dozens of community groups trying to get banks to do more work in low-income neighborhoods.
