The Trump Administration’s banking regulators released a plan in December to upend the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Although released under the guise of being a modernization of the monumental civil rights legislation, Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting’s plan is a complete rewrite of the law.
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) is not the only one deeply concerned about the proposed changes. House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions is hosting a hearing today on who will be the winners and losers under the proposed changes.
NCRC’s Director of Policy and Government Affairs, Gerron Levi, was one of the witnesses testifying against the notice of proposed rulemaking. Levi focused her testimony on NCRC’s biggest concerns: the 60-day comment period is too short to properly assess and analyze all the changes; the proposal lacks data and impact analysis making a complete analysis of changes within the short comment period even more difficult; and that the proposed changes are substantial, dilutive and would weaken the effectiveness of the law.
“At the outset, we believe there have been critical missteps in the rulemaking process, including the 60-day length of the public comment period. The agencies must extend it. The OCC and FDIC should heed Chairwoman Maxine Waters and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown and the Members of this Committee and Senate Banking calling for and extension of the comment period,” Levi said. “The 240-page proposal is dense, complex and has many interlocking pieces – in terms of how all the new benchmarks, thresholds and definitions fit together. Neither the 60-day timeframe nor the information provided in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) offer a meaningful opportunity to comment.”
To read NCRC’s full written testimony, visit:
To learn more about the proposed CRA changes and submit a comment to the OCC and the FDIC, visit:
