Title
Urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to withdraw the proposed amendments to their Community Reinvestment Act rules, which would roll back anti-redlining standards and weaken banking services to low- and moderate-income communities while threatening investments in affordable housing and community development.
Body
WHEREAS, In 1977, Congress enacted the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to address redlining, the discriminatory denial or withholding of financial services from communities on the basis of race or ethnicity, and to require federal banking regulators to encourage financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of low- and moderate-income communities; and
WHEREAS, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have proposed rules that would raise the asset threshold for defining the large banks that receive the greatest scrutiny from federal regulators, potentially reducing community development obligations and transparency around small business lending for hundreds of banks; and
WHEREAS, Community Reinvestment Act activity supports investments and services that are essential to the well-being of Philadelphia neighborhoods, including affordable housing development and preservation, community development financial institutions, housing counseling, small-business lending, workforce development, and other locally based community-development efforts; and
WHEREAS, The proposed rules may limit the ability of financial institutions to receive Community Reinvestment Act consideration for general operating support provided to nonprofit organizations and may restrict recognition of certain administrative and indirect costs, thereby reducing flexible resources available to smaller and community-based organizations serving low- and moderate-income communities; and
WHEREAS, Reducing the number of institutions subject to robust Community Rein...
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