WASHINGTON - In a speech that took regulators by surprise, Vice President Gore accused the two independent banking agencies of resisting Community Reinvestment Act reform.
Setting March 31 as a deadline for final rules, Mr. Gore last Friday reaffirmed the Clinton administration's support for the CRA.
Mr. Gore, saying new CRA rules should be complete by now, blamed the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for the slow pace.
"Two of these regulators have taken longer than we wanted and made the job harder," Mr. Gore said before more than 400 bankers and community activists gathered here for a conference sponsored by NationsBank Corp.
Regulators appeared startled by Mr. Gore's accusations.
"I'm not aware of what the Vice President is talking about," Federal Reserve Governor Lawrence B. Lindsey said.
Mr. Lindsey said neither the Fed nor the other agencies are dragging their feet. Rather, writing the rules is taking longer than expected. For example, he said, representatives from the four agencies spent all of Friday working on technical portions of the rules that relate to proposed examiner guidelines.
"There is a lot of detail," Mr. Lindsey said. "That, frankly, is what is taking a lot of time."
FDIC spokesman Alan Whitney said he did not "understand what the basis" was for Mr. Gore's comments.
"We are not aware that any part of our involvement in the process has caused any kind of slowdown in working through the CRA proposal," he said.
Mr. Lindsey said March 31 is possible but not guaranteed. "I can't conceive of anything earlier," he added.
The Vice President made it clear that the administration supports Comptroller of the Currency Eugene A. Ludwig, who has been leading a lonely fight to revamp CRA rules since the President demanded the reform 18 months ago.
"This was a signal that the administration backs Ludwig as the point person in this area," said Allen Fishbein, general counsel at the Center for Community Change. "This was the first time the White House has said they want to see the regulators get on with this."
Community activists were buoyed by Mr. Gore's remarks.
"Maybe the regulators he was referring to will hear the message," said John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
Mr. Taylor said Mr. Gore told him that President Clinton had just that morning emphasized the need to reestablish the administration's support for CRA.
"We were fearful the White House was forcing us to do the battle alone," said Bob Gnaizda, general counsel of the Greenlining Institute in San Francisco. "The President and Vice President are right on in their criticisms of the Fed and the FDIC."
Catherine P. Bessant, NationsBank's senior vice president in charge of CRA, said Mr. Gore was signaling that political tides have not influenced the White House's position.
Jo Ann Barefoot, president of Barefoot, Marrinan & Associates, agreed but said the battle over CRA is far from over.
"Whether they do or don't adopt this regulation, we will still have confusion if Congress is talking about changing it," Ms. Barefoot said.
The new Republican-controlled Congress has put regulatory relief at the top of its agenda, targeting CRA as a law that needs to be fixed if not repealed.
The reform is designed to focus CRA evaluations on three performance criteria: lending, service, and investment. The new rules would have wide industry support if the agencies drop a new requirement to report race and gender.
