Democrats said the OCC’s previous go-it-alone approach would have allowed banks to gain favorable CRA ratings by funding projects that do little to improve the lives of low- to middle income people and distressed minority neighborhoods, such as financing sports stadiums. Democrats wanted greater focus on smaller, consumer-facing transactions, such as mortgage loans, and community participation.
Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Trump-appointed Comptroller of the Currency Joseph M. Otting had “ignored thousands of thoughtful comments from civil rights leaders, community development advocates, and local leaders and rammed through an overhaul to this key civil rights era law.”
Republicans, however, praised the Otting proposal, with McHenry saying then that the update “reflects the transformation of banking services.”
‘Knee-jerk’ reactions
Alston & Bird’s Brown says neither political party is focusing properly. “Both sides agree on the problem, but they have different ways of solving it; neither way is inherently good or bad.”
But Brown is pessimistic about a meeting of the minds. He said in an email he fears the nation will “continue to have this whipsaw effect of policy making where the party that controls the White House may be able to implement its one-sided approach for four (maybe eight) years, and then we’ll go back the other way. That is no way to run a country.”
