Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation

From: Oscar Ocasio [mailto:oocasio@elizabethnj.org]
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 5:24 PM
To: Comments
Subject: Community Reinvestment -- RIN 3064-AC50

Thanks to the CRA obligation our city enjoys a very cooperative and friendly relationship with many of the banks doing business here. There is a genuine interest form bank representatives in getting involved in the development and growth of our city. These individuals are engaged in what is going on in town and are eager to get involved to serve the community and provide tha necessary financial tools.

It was the CRA obligation that effectively worked as the stick to get the banks to assign staff to seek out opportunities to invest in urban communities. Without this obligation we will see a return of bank decisions purely based on finances without a social investment context. Bank CRA officers will be reassigned to other functions and, once again, we will see urban communities serviced by bank branches with staff to take deposits from customers, but without
officers to provide loan and other services.

For these reasons I am opposed to removing or loosening the CRA obligation.

Oscar Ocasio
Director of Planning and Community Development
City of Elizabeth
50 Winfield Scott Plaza
Elizabeth, NJ 07201