To: regs.comments@occ.treas.gov,
regs.comments@federalreserve.gov,
comments@fdic.gov,
regs.comments@ots.treas.gov
Dear Officials of Federal Bank and Thrift Agencies:
I am concerned a concerned citizen who is active in the field of
community development and am writing to urge you to WITHDRAW the
currently proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)
regulations.
For decades, the CRA has encouraged banks to better serve U.S.
communities, resulting in increased access to homeownership,
strengthened economic development in stagnant local economies, and
expansion of small businesses in the nation's minority, immigrant, and
low- and moderate-income communities. Moreover, the CRA is a tool by
which regulators can ensure these outcomes are taking place. Your
proposed changes promise to halt and even reverse that progress.
The CRA has empowered citizens with the tools for close oversight of
their local banks, community residents can serve as the "eyes and ears"
that the regulatory agencies need for responsible oversight. Moreover,
it has added stakeholders to stockholders and regulators in the ongoing
work of fine-tuning "financial intermediation" to best serve the
convenience, needs, and advancement of the country's local, regional,
and national economies.
It is indeed unfortunate that you propose to block that citizen
oversight of 1,111 banks that account for more than $387 billion in
assets! Those not-so-small banks may seem small in comparison with
prominent megabanks, but they are HUGE to the communities they serve,
and those communities deserve the right to monitor and, if necessary, to
discipline those banks. It is imperative that banks fulfill their public
obligation to serve ALL of their community, without unfair exclusion and
without predatory practices. Limiting the means by which a community can
monitor this is appalling.
I recognize that you have likely received many letters detailing the
serious drawbacks of the proposed Interagency Regulations - drawbacks
that promise to undermine and even cripple efforts to expand fair access
to high-quality financial products and services. I won't reiterate them
here, but instead I will urge you to keep your eye on the goal, a goal
that CRA has served with increasing effectiveness over the past
twenty-five years: To make fair access to capital, credit and banking
services available to everyone, in order to help individuals, families
and communities build assets toward a more prosperous and resilient
economic future.
CRA is a law that makes capitalism work for all Americans. It is far
too vital to be gutted by harmful regulatory changes and neglect. I
thank you for your attention to this critical matter.
Sincerely,
C. May Matthews
Cc: National Community Reinvestment Coalition
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