The Hill: Financial agencies looking to modernize reinvestment act
8/14/10
Financial agencies and federal lawmakers are moving to revamp a 1970s-era law designed to reduce racial discrimination in lending and bolster loans to low- and middle-income communities.
Financial agencies have held a series of summer field hearings to look at ways of modernizing the law, which many Republicans claim contributed to the housing crisis and Democrats say should be expanded to better accomplish its mission.
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National People’s Action, a grassroots organization, released a report Friday that criticized four of the largest U.S. banks for “gaming the system” by relying on affiliate lenders that did not function under CRA.
“The vast majority of the lending that caused this crisis occurred outside the law of CRA through unregulated mortgage companies and through the shielding practices of the big banks. Had CRA covered all of the lending that was occurring, it is likely that the worst of the crisis could have been averted,” the group said in the report.
Read the full article at TheHill.com
