National Mortgage News, May 7, 2020: Agencies Urged to Pause CRA Reform as Banks Manage Pandemic Response
WASHINGTON — Regulators should slow efforts to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act as the coronavirus pandemic dominates the workload of bankers and the agencies, a cohort of stakeholders said this week.
There is increasing skepticism that the demands of the pandemic will make it feasible for banks upgrade data collection and other efforts in a timely manner in order to comply with the CRA rule. Otting has suggested that a rule could be finalized and implemented in time for a reformed CRA framework to help ease the economic stress on communities from the pandemic.
“Imagine gearing up for an overhauled proposal — it would take banks one or two years to revamp their data collection systems, for example,” said Josh Silver, senior adviser at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “Let’s hope” that the pandemic “is over in a year or two. Even if this new [proposal] would be implemented, I think Mr. Otting is incorrect on the timing aspect.”
