From: BRUCE BURNS [mailto:bburns07@prodigy.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 3:06 PM
To: Comments
Subject: RIN 3064-AC50

FDIC

I am very concerned about your proposed new rule exempting banks with less than one billion dollars in assets from Community Reinvestment Act requirements, and I oppose your proposal strenuously.

CRA has been very effective in accessing investment for central city neighborhoods and rural areas. It seems that our efforts are under attack from all federal sectors, and you lamely go along. More, you join those attacks with a particularly devastating one. I have worked in central cities and rural communities building affordable housing and restoring commercial sectors for many years, and I have found that banks, when they find out how we can help them with their CRA requirements and still keep their money safe through low loan-to-value ratios, they like working with us. You will remove any incentive they had to even listen to us. Shame on you.

Go over and sit with Wal-Mart as the latest destroyer of central cities and rural communities.

Bruce Burns
Partner
Burns, Bertsch & Harris, Inc.
Columbus, OH