Politico, January 24, 2022, ‘Big shift’: Biden moves to rewrite the rules on climate threat
The nation’s top financial regulators will soon embark on a controversial, first-of-its-kind mission: forcing banks and other industry players to prepare for potential threats to the U.S. financial system from climate change.
Now, Democrats will have the pen to update the anti-redlining law and could decide instead to give lenders an incentive, for example, to invest in green projects in lower-income communities. That idea was floated last year by researchers at the Center for American Progress. But the agencies have been working on CRA for months and are likely to put out a proposal relatively soon.
“That’s a real tension,” said Jesse Van Tol, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “There’s some really good ideas about how climate could be incorporated into CRA. On the other hand, I think there’s a strong desire to get this done quickly.”
