WASHINGTON – The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which has been lobbying to expand the Community Reinvestment Act to credit unions and other financial service providers, is expected to testify at congressional hearings next week to broaden the CRA.
The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a hearing next Wednesday on the CRA and legislation that would add credit unions, insurers and investment companies to the law that currently requires banks and thrifts to make concerted efforts to serve low- and moderate-income people within their markets.
Announcement of the hearings comes a day after the NCRC issued a new study claiming that credit unions lag behind banks and thrifts in serving the underserved. "We expect efforts to expand the scope of CRA to be part of the broader initiatives at regulatory reform and restoring confidence in the markets," David Berenbaum, executive vice president of the non-profit, told The Credit Union Journal today.
Credit unions have been fighting efforts for years to bring them under CRA, saying that because of restrictions on who they can serve–field of membership–they should not have their efforts at serving the underserved judged in the same way as banks and thrifts.
