Washington People: Home Loan Bank Director Arrested at Protest

The former chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas was among the demonstrators arrested Wednesday after disrupting a Congressional hearing on the Community Reinvestment Act.

Elena Hanggi, who is still a director of the Dallas bank, was arrested along with four others at the hearing and charged with disorderly conduct. That's $500 or six months in the slammer.

They chanted "Save CRA" and "No Safe Harbor" for about five minutes before the Capitol Police arrived to arrest them.

Ms. Hanggi is a Little Rock friend of President Clinton who in the past has been rumored as a candidate for the Federal Housing Finance Board, which regulates the Home Loan banks. She was chairman of the Dallas bank for one term, from 1991 through last year.

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Rep. Sonny Bono made some new friends in the banking industry last week.

At a House Banking subcommittee hearing, the California Republican suggested to a panel of trade group representatives that their concerns with the Community Reinvestment Act are right on target.

"If I were king, I would talk to some of you fellows and ask 'How do we do this,"' Rep. Bono said, in a rambling statement to the panel. "I'm not a king, but tell me how to do this, because I want to know - I want to validate you."

The panelists - bankers representing the American Bankers Association, the Independent Bankers Association, and America's Community Bankers - were all smiles.

"Thank you very much, and I'll vote for you for king," said James M. Culberson, chairman of First National Bank and Trust, Asheboro, N.C.

Rep. Bono also had some advice for bankers in dealing with what Mr. Culberson described as the "thud" factor - the notion that the thicker the CRA file, the higher the grade.

"I would have slipped in some blank paper to make it thicker," said Rep. Bono.

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Call him the kinder, gentler Fed governor.

Clinton appointee Alan S. Blinder announced last week his preference for a new nickname for how the Fed has fought inflation.

"I prefer the stitch-in-time strategy" to the more commonly used "preemptive strike," Mr. Blinder told the Institute for International Bankers last Monday.

Preemptive strike makes Mr. Blinder think of someone being hit over the head with a baseball bat, the professorial Fed governor told the bankers.

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The California League of Savings Institutions is planning a name change along with a membership change, said its Washington-and California-based President Lou Nevins.

Its not yet official, but the thrift trade groups plans to change its name to the Western League of Savings Institutions. That's because it is adding thrifts from Arizona and Nevada to its California thrift membership.

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