American Banker, May 6, 2022, Caught between bankers and activists, can the CRA reform proposal make everyone happy?
Federal bank regulators moved forward on their major rewrite of the Community Reinvestment Act to wide applause from unusual bedfellows: banking trade organizations and community groups.
Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said the proposal is a “cautious step forward” on improving how the law expands credit access to minority communities.
Because of how the law was originally written, regulators likely would have faced legal challenges if they explicitly incorporated race into their proposed rule, he said.
“It’s sort of the original sin of the CRA,” Van Tol said.
