Proposed changes in loans law vex

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is proposing changes to a decadesold law designed to keep banks from discriminating against the poor and disadvantaged, but critics argue that the changes could make it easier for banks to sidestep those goals.

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 But it’s out of date and in need of an overhaul.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 that 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 the poor and minority-group communities by the banking industry could increase under the proposal.

The Community Reinvestment Act was passed in 1977, when bank branches were one of the few ways to measure a bank’s presence in a community. It was last revised in the mid-1990s,

when online banking barely existed. There are now banks that have zero branches, making it more difficult to measure what constitutes a community under the law.

In addition, the law rewards banks that make mortgages and small-business loans in their communities but is murky about what other types of loans or activities can count as “community reinvestment.” Bankers, regulators and activists alike have all called for an overhaul.

The Trump proposal aims to broaden the definition of what constitutes a bank’s community — taking into account that online banking now exists — while broadening the types of loans and services that would qualify under the law. Under the administration’s new proposal, banks could get

credit for other types of lending to low-income customers like credit cards and personal loans — a move that would greatly benefit the largest of the country’s banks because they already dominate those lines of business.

The regulations would also give banks credit, under certain circumstances, for loans they make to build or improve facilities such as sports stadiums and hospitals.

It’s the broadening of what would qualify under the law 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, chief executive officer 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.

The overhaul of the Community Reinvestment Act is being led by Joseph Otting, the comptroller of the currency and one of the primary regulators of the national banking industry. Otting had personal experience dealing with the reinvestment act during his long career in banking before taking the comptroller job. He was CEO of OneWest Bank for five years, where Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin served as chairman.

“I know, and care about, these communities. My intent is to strengthen CRA, not weaken it,” Otting said Wednesday.

But Otting’s proposed overhaul has caused one of the three national bank regulators — the Federal Reserve — to be unwilling to sign on to his proposal. It’s caused a rare public divide between regulators. Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard, the lone Obama-era appointee left

on the board, gave a speech earlier this year laying out a different proposal for overhauling law that moved away from the comptroller’s approach.

Other Fed officials have also made similar comments.

“We worked very hard to try to get aligned with the comptroller on a proposal and my hope is that we can still do that,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in a news conference in December as the comptroller’s office was finalizing its proposal. “But you know, I don’t know whether that’ll be possible or not.”

There has also been criticism of the how quickly the comptroller’s office is moving forward with its overhaul. It has set only a 60-day comment period instead of the usual 90- or 120-day period. The comment period began Jan. 9, when the proposed changes were published in the

Federal Register. Banking and community groups have said privately that the timeline is too short for such a substantial overhaul. Otting has publicly said he does not plan to waver from the 60-day period.

Otting took heat from congressional Democrats on Wednesday during a scheduled appearance before the House Financial Services Committee. A significant number of the senior Democrats on the committee are black, including chairwoman Maxine Waters, and consider the reinvestment act to be a critical tool to help black and minority communities.

“CRA was, and still is, a civil rights bill,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. “Your proposal would undermine that.”

The comptroller’s office regulates the banking industry along with the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.