Nesiba at nd.edu (Reynold
02-17-1995, 09:03 PM
This is in response to Richard Conn's request for info regarding how one
goes about finding banks with potential CRA weaknesses.
All commercial banks, S&L's and savings banks must have a CRA statement, a
CRA file (with any letters of complaint) and their last federally perfomed
CRA evaluation available to the public. (Credit Unions and smaller
mortgage companies are exempt from CRA although they may be required to
disclose data required by HMDA.) The CRA evaluation in particular will
give an overall rating (outstanding, satisfactory, needs to improve or
substantial non-compliiance) as well as what the institutions particular
strengths and weaknesses are. However, be wary, the vast majority of
financial instituions receive outstanding and satisfactory ratings. You
should be able to obtain copies of an instituions file and evaluation by
making a request at the bank. Some will happily mail it to you per a phone
call request at no cost. Others may ask that you come down in person and
will charge you some nominal cost for their photo copy expense. All are
requiredby law to make it publically available, and are allowed to charge
for photocopy expense.
Ideally, someone at a local community group may have already done this in
your community or done some HMDA data analysis independent of the federal
regulatory agencies. I know where I am, South Bend Indiana, the best place
to send such a request would be to our community group, CA$H PLU$ (Citizen
Action for South Bend Housing-Plus) or I guess to me--I'm writing a
dissertation on a related topic. We attempt to monitor local bank
complicance and have done some of our own HMDA data analysis in order to
evaluate which lenders do the best and worst in terms of making loans to
low income and minority neighborhoods and individuals.
A few other groups might also be helpful to you the National Community
Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) and the Center for Community Change both
based in Washington DC, lobby for pro-community legislation, distribute
newsletters and occasional analysis concerning how particular lenders are
doing. They do a good job of providing basic info on CRA and HMDA
legislation. You may find these organizations worth joining. I'm sorry I
don't have a phone number handy but I do have an e-mail address for the
NCRC. You could send them a general info request to
hn1748@handsnet.org
Sharon will probably write you back in a few days. There pretty busy right
now trying to lobby against the gutting of CRA.
I wish you the best of luck. Finding CRA info on banks is a time consuming
task, but may lead to useful social change. I hope you can find what you
are looking for and it helps you build some more houses. It's frightening
that legislation has recently been filed by one of your congressional
representitives from Florida to basically gut what lenient CRA regulations
already exist. You should send him (I'm fairly sure it's a him) a note
explaining why CRA is so important to what you do in Florida.
Enough for now.
Reynold
>Whilst I am not interested in the job opportunity, I am currently working on
>a program in St. Petersberg, Florida to build 200+ new homes for targeted
>neighborhoods with no money down in connection with a CRA challenged lender.
>How could I get inside info on the status of CRA problems a bank has? All the
>better to negotiate with.
>Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>Thank You for your time.
>
>Richard D. Conn
>also, RDCONN@AOL.COM
>sounds slightly more professional than funami
================================================== ============
Reynold F. Nesiba (and/or Anita Nesiba)
Department of Economics
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Phone: (219) 271-7276
Fax: (219) 631-8809
Internet: Nesiba@nd.edu
================================================== ============
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list
goes about finding banks with potential CRA weaknesses.
All commercial banks, S&L's and savings banks must have a CRA statement, a
CRA file (with any letters of complaint) and their last federally perfomed
CRA evaluation available to the public. (Credit Unions and smaller
mortgage companies are exempt from CRA although they may be required to
disclose data required by HMDA.) The CRA evaluation in particular will
give an overall rating (outstanding, satisfactory, needs to improve or
substantial non-compliiance) as well as what the institutions particular
strengths and weaknesses are. However, be wary, the vast majority of
financial instituions receive outstanding and satisfactory ratings. You
should be able to obtain copies of an instituions file and evaluation by
making a request at the bank. Some will happily mail it to you per a phone
call request at no cost. Others may ask that you come down in person and
will charge you some nominal cost for their photo copy expense. All are
requiredby law to make it publically available, and are allowed to charge
for photocopy expense.
Ideally, someone at a local community group may have already done this in
your community or done some HMDA data analysis independent of the federal
regulatory agencies. I know where I am, South Bend Indiana, the best place
to send such a request would be to our community group, CA$H PLU$ (Citizen
Action for South Bend Housing-Plus) or I guess to me--I'm writing a
dissertation on a related topic. We attempt to monitor local bank
complicance and have done some of our own HMDA data analysis in order to
evaluate which lenders do the best and worst in terms of making loans to
low income and minority neighborhoods and individuals.
A few other groups might also be helpful to you the National Community
Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) and the Center for Community Change both
based in Washington DC, lobby for pro-community legislation, distribute
newsletters and occasional analysis concerning how particular lenders are
doing. They do a good job of providing basic info on CRA and HMDA
legislation. You may find these organizations worth joining. I'm sorry I
don't have a phone number handy but I do have an e-mail address for the
NCRC. You could send them a general info request to
hn1748@handsnet.org
Sharon will probably write you back in a few days. There pretty busy right
now trying to lobby against the gutting of CRA.
I wish you the best of luck. Finding CRA info on banks is a time consuming
task, but may lead to useful social change. I hope you can find what you
are looking for and it helps you build some more houses. It's frightening
that legislation has recently been filed by one of your congressional
representitives from Florida to basically gut what lenient CRA regulations
already exist. You should send him (I'm fairly sure it's a him) a note
explaining why CRA is so important to what you do in Florida.
Enough for now.
Reynold
>Whilst I am not interested in the job opportunity, I am currently working on
>a program in St. Petersberg, Florida to build 200+ new homes for targeted
>neighborhoods with no money down in connection with a CRA challenged lender.
>How could I get inside info on the status of CRA problems a bank has? All the
>better to negotiate with.
>Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>Thank You for your time.
>
>Richard D. Conn
>also, RDCONN@AOL.COM
>sounds slightly more professional than funami
================================================== ============
Reynold F. Nesiba (and/or Anita Nesiba)
Department of Economics
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Phone: (219) 271-7276
Fax: (219) 631-8809
Internet: Nesiba@nd.edu
================================================== ============
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list