In the News

As Key moved toward acquiring First Niagara, Key announced a five-year, $16.5 billion community benefits plan, developed with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

A group called the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has tallied all the bank branches in Dallas County. Above I-30, there are 474. Southern Dallas has 58.

In two separate tests, the nonprofit National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that Black people seeking small-business loans under coronavirus relief programs were treated less favorably than Whites — even when they had stronger financial profiles.

Researchers from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the University of Richmond and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee analyzed historic redlining maps from 142 urban areas across the U.S. — these maps, created in the 1930s, classified Black and immigrant communities as risky places to make home loans.

The District of Columbia has not seen an emergency on this scale since the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed about 3,000 people in the region. Over 100 years later, Washington, D.C., is one of the most gentrified cities in the U.S., according to a study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. The nation’s capital also has the highest rate of homelessness.

The 2016 study from NCRC looked at mortgage lending patterns in St. Louis, Milwaukee and Minneapolis and observed compounding effects of systemic discrimination in banking and finance. It documented zones of largely unbanked and underbanked populations coupled with low rates of mortgage originations that were correlated with predominantly Black neighborhoods.

Bruce Mitchell, a senior researcher at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said that “Anyone who was not northern-European white was considered to be a detraction from the value of the area.”

Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, explains that because the new rule imposes no requirements to further fair housing, local governments can “do nothing but talk … and claim they furthered fair housing.” As a result, Van Tol argues that the rule will not address the “persistent patterns of racial segregation that continue to create unfair and unjust life outcomes for people based on their zip codes.”

Josh Silver, Senior Advisor at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, told BuildingGreen the CRA, in addition to needing updates that take into consideration the proliferation of electronic banking, could do more to benefit struggling communities. He added that the order has not changed at all since 1995.

According to a mystery shopper test, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) revealed that federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lenders were in violation of Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) even after being made aware of discriminatory practices.

A 2018 study conducted by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) in Los Angeles found that bank personnel introduced themselves less frequently to Black study participants than they did to white participants, and provided significantly less information to Black and Latinx participants regarding business loan products.

A study conducted by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition in July found that Black business owners had a harder time securing coronavirus financial relief than white business owners.

Huntington, Fifth Third Bank and KeyBank negotiated with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition to create their community benefit agreements. The trio collectively committed to more than $60 billion in lending and investments to low- and moderate-income communities and communities of color in the markets they serve.

Today, these neighborhoods are low to moderate income, according to one analysis by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and located in cities with incessant economic inequalities and extremely segregated neighborhoods.