1st Edition

Credit to the Community Community Reinvestment and Fair Lending Policy in the United States

By Dan Immergluck Copyright 2004

    This book provides the most comprehensive examination of community reinvestment and fair lending problems and policies currently available. It outlines the history of lending discrimination and redlining in U.S. mortgage and small business lending markets, and documents the persistence of such problems today. The author explains the role that government has played in developing banking and credit markets in the United States, from the creation of Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States to the ongoing support government provides through the subsidization of secondary markets and through maintenance of critical regulatory infrastructure. Immergluck takes issue with those calling for deregulation of financial services - especially in the arena of fair lending and consumer protection - and gives new voice to rationales for social contract policies such as the Community Reinvestment Act. He provides new long-term analysis of the failure of federal bank regulators to enforce the CRA, and also shows how increased community activism and media attention have led to sporadic periods of stronger CRA enforcement. Finally, he recommends a number of policy changes that are needed to modernize the nation's fair lending and community reinvestment laws and make them more relevant for the 21st century.

    1. Introduction; 2. The Visible Hand of Government in U.S. Credit Markets; 3. Discrimination, Redlining, and Financial Restructuring in Business Credit Markets; 4. A Brief History of Mortgage Lending Discrimination and Redlining; 5. From Fair Access to Credit to Access to Fair Credit; 6. Mobilizing for Credit: Community Activism, Policy Adoption, and Implementation through 1987; 7. Community Reinvestment from 1988 through the End of the Twentieth Century: Struggles for Bank and Regulator Accountability; 8. The Predatory Lending Policy Debate; 9. CRA and Fair Lending Policy in the Twenty-First Century

    Biography

    Dan Immergluck