Today, the Senate confirmed Jerome Powell to his second term as the Federal Reserve Board’s Chair.
Jesse Van Tol, President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, made the following statement:
“In his first term as Fed Chair, Jerome faced unprecedented economic challenges borne out of the global pandemic. He recognized that the financial and personal impacts of COVID were heaviest and hardest on communities of color. He told attendees at our 2021 Just Economy Conference that the Fed was focused on ‘long standing disparities because they weigh on the productive capacity of our economy. We will only reach our full potential when everyone can contribute to and share in the benefits of prosperity.’
“We completely agree. We also agree with Jerome’s most quoted line from our conference – ‘like activity should have like regulation.’ He was talking about the need for the entire financial sector to share the regulatory obligation to serve, reinvest and produce public benefits for all communities – a responsibility that is now exclusive to banks through the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).
“We look forward to continuing to work with Jerome to finalize new CRA rules that will increase lending, investments and services to low- and moderate-income communities and communities of color.”
