Chicago Sun-Times: Now's your chance to tell feds how banks can help you

Federal regulators who oversee the relationships between America's banks and the consumers they are supposed to serve will hold a rulemaking hearing in Chicago Thursday. If the past is an indicator, the hearing will be long, complex, ignored by the news media -- and very important.

At issue is how to make the federal Community Reinvestment Act more relevant and effective in 2010 and for the years ahead. CRA is designed to hold financial institutions accountable for serving local consumer and business credit needs in the communities they serve and profit from.

The impetus for the law actually came from Chicago's communities, where 40 years ago people saw neighborhoods across the city crippled by bank redlining -- the practice of denying someone a loan based on where they lived. Chicago neighborhood activist Gale Cincotta teamed up with people from neighborhood organizations across the country and launched a national fight to outlaw redlining. In 1977, President Carter signed the Community Reinvestment Act into law. Since then, CRA has brought over $4 trillion of private capital into low- and moderate-income communities. Billions have been invested in Chicago, the home of the nation's first community reinvestment agreements.

Read the entire Op-ed at the Chicago Sun-Times.