Partnership for Financial Equity Releases Statement on new CRA Rules and Swings into Action

New rules governing the Community Reinvestment Act are out and the Partnership for Financial Equity is engaging with banks and community organizations to understand the impact moving forward.

“At the Partnership for Financial Equity, our member banks and community organizations are already hard at work to understand and comply with the final rule governing the Community Reinvestment Act,” said Brook Ames, SVP, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer for Leader Bank and chair of the Partnership for Financial Equity. “Our CRA Peer Group, led by CRA officers at Cape Cod Five, Needham Bank and Rockland Trust, has mapped out an active role in this review and I know they will be helping to lead the discussion across the state every step of the way.”

“CRA has been a critical tool for investment in low- and moderate-income communities since its passage in 1977 and we fully support modernizing the rules to ensure that this mission is consistent with changes in banking and consumer behavior,” said Thomas Callahan, Executive Director at the Partnership for Financial Equity. “We have already heard from our members about positive aspects of the rule as well as initial concerns about how this will affect our communities, and it will take some time to fully absorb the first substantive changes to CRA in more than 25 years.”

Get more involved in the conversation around the Community Reinvestment Act by joining Partnership for Financial Equity, either as a financial institution or community-based organization. Contact us at tcallahan@financialequity.net for more information.

Connections, Best Practices, Thought Leaders

Partnership for Financial Equity helps financial institutions to stay current on Community Reinvestment Act requirements and engage in important research and timely conversations about investments in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods . Membership donations to Partnership for Financial Equity are a qualified investment under the State’s CRA statute.

 

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