Senator Mark R. Warner (D-Va) and 15 other senators sent a letter to Joseph M. Otting, Comptroller of the Currency, Jerome H. Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and Martin J. Gruenberg, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, urging them to take steps that would strengthen access to credit for low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities under the Community Reinvestment Act. The letter is in response to reports that the agencies are considering significant updates to the CRA.
According to the legislators, the CRA expanded homeownership to more Americans, financed more small businesses, and helped local economies by providing LMI communities with access to credit. In the letter, the senators urged the agencies to strengthen the CRA by expanding its applicability to regions and institutions that are not currently covered by the CRA and avoid proposals that could undermine the effectiveness of the law. In addition, the senators emphasized the need to reflect the impact of digital banking in any new regulations.
"When the CRA became law in 1977, a bank’s geographic footprint and the areas surrounding it was a good proxy for the communities served by the bank," the senators wrote in a press release. "That no longer holds true. A bank should be examined under the CRA for how it serves LMI communities where it has a physical footprint and in areas where the bank accepts deposits and does substantial business, and it should receive CRA credit for qualifying loans and investments made in those areas."
In addition to Warner, the letter was signed by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Doug Jones (D-Ala), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md), Gary Peters (D-Mich), Ron Wyden (D-Ore), and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich).
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