NCRC

Responsible banking ordinance was developed in part by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition which advocates for greater reinvestment by banks in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods and has drafted model legislation that local governments can work from.

Banks, overwhelmed by applications, “failed to live up to the goals of a 44-year-old federal law that requires them to equitably serve all communities where they do business,” according to Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a fair-lending group.

A recent report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition ranks the city as one of the most intensely gentrifying cities in the U.S. 

Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell recently voiced his support for expanding the federal CRA to all institutions that make consumer loans. “Like activities should have like regulation,” Powell said last week to the annual conference of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a nationwide network of community development and fair housing groups. It would take legislative action from Congress to do so.

Regarding the influence of fintech on the supply of services, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition wrote, “…the digital financial providers may not have much of an impact in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods since customers unfamiliar with banking are less likely to engage in significant digital banking transactions.”

Pittsburgh is one of the most gentrified cities in the country, according to a 2019 report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, when Federal Reserve Chairman Powell recently spoke at a National Community Reinvestment Coalition event, he telegraphed his view saying, “like activities should have like regulation.”

Jesse Van Tol, chief executive of the fair lending group National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said the disparities show that banks failed to live up to a 44-year-old federal law that requires them to equitably serve all communities where they do business.

Commercial banks are closing branches around the country — more than 3,300 last year alone, a record high. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition says 14 percent of all operational U.S. bank branches closed between 2008 and 2020.

“If a business didn’t have a preexisting relationship with a lender, it was hard to get in with that lender,” said Jason Richardson, the director of research and evaluation at the advocacy organization National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

Speaking via webcast at the annual Just Economy conference of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell outlined many of the continuing challenges and answered many questions moderated by Jesse Van Tol, CEO of NCRC.

Powell spoke to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition ahead of the release of the Fed’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) report later this month. He focused much of his message on how the Fed is working to improve outcomes for larger portions of the population.

“While the recovery is gathering strength, it has been slower for those in lower-paid jobs,” Powell said at a virtual event sponsored by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

According to a National Community Reinvestment Coalition study, Pittsburgh was the eighth-most gentrified city in the U.S. in 2019, with neighborhoods like Downtown, Lawrenceville, and the Mexican War Streets seeing the sharpest levels of gentrification.