Top U.S. banking regulators said they would work jointly to modernize rules governing how banks lend hundreds of billions of dollars annually in lower-income communities.
At a time when many banking services have moved online, regulators have been trying to forge a consensus for updating rules from a law enacted more than 40 years ago when banking largely took place at physical branches. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees national banks and the bulk of the activity under the low-income lending rules, said it would propose withdrawing controversial changes it pushed through last year without the support of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., two other bank regulators responsible for overseeing the Community Reinvestment Act. “While the OCC deserves credit for taking action to modernize the CRA through adoption of the 2020 rule, upon review I believe it was a false start,” Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu said in a statement Tuesday.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/low-income-lending-rules-set-for-broad-overhaul-11626796811