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The Week Ahead: Readdressing the Community Reinvestment Act

On Tuesday, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions will hold a hearing titled, “The Community Reinvestment Act: Reviewing Who Wins and Who Loses with Comptroller Otting’s Proposal." Witnesses will include Gerron Levi, Director, Policy & Government Affairs, National Community Reinvestment Coalition; Eric Rodriguez, Senior Vice President, Policy and Advocacy, UnidosUS; Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, Executive Director of California Reinvestment Coalition Institute; Hope Knight, President & CEO, Greater Jamaica Development Corporation; and Faith Bautista, President & CEO, National Diversity Coalition.

The hearing is being held after Comptroller of the Curency Joseph Otting an update to the CRA's rules toward the end of 2019. According to Otting, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is "took steps to strengthen and modernize CRA rules, and encourage banks to do even more to help our neediest communities."

"The proposal builds on recommendations that federal banking agencies submitted to Congress in 2017 as part of their required decennial review of laws and regulations. It reflects the Treasury Department’s recommendations released in April 2018 and the feedback gathered by the Federal Reserve," said Otting.

According to Reuters, regulators are trying to update rules in the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which requires regulators to assess how well banks are serving the needs of lower-income areas. The rules were last updated in 1995.

The Fed shares responsibility for enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act with two other regulators: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

According to Reuters, those two regulators proposed a rule update in December without the U.S. central bank’s support, which would establish a uniform standard to evaluate a banks’ effort to support lower-income communities.

Here's what else is happening in The Week Ahead:

NAHB Home Builders Index (January 16)
Census’ Housing Starts/Permits (January 17)

About Author: Seth Welborn

Seth Welborn is a Reporter for DS News and MReport. A graduate of Harding University, he has covered numerous topics across the real estate and default servicing industries. Additionally, he has written B2B marketing copy for Dallas-based companies such as AT&T. An East Texas Native, he also works part-time as a photographer.
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