The Daily Memphian, March 6, 2020: Comptroller of currency defends rewrite of anti-redlining act during Beale forum
The federal comptroller of the currency took a look around Crosstown Concourse and Smoky City/Klondike to its north Friday, March 6, and then mounted a Beale Street defense of changes to the 43-year-old Community Reinvestment Act.
The CRA rewrite comes as Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is pushing for changes to an Obama Administration effort to track poverty and racial segregation in housing. The changes would eliminate the term “segregation” from the tracking system. And Carson is also proposing to roll back liability for “unintentional discrimination” by algorithms lenders might use in making loan decisions.
Otting said the changes are designed to have banks invest more in low-income areas with development that doesn’t gentrify the areas.
Standaert remained skeptical, saying banks would react to the proposal if it becomes law by limiting their connections to low- income areas even further.
“They could have used this as an opportunity to strengthen the CRA to better serve those areas,” she said. “But unfortunately, the details by which they are proposing to do that will, we think, increase the likelihood that they will continue to be bypassed.”
