NCRC E-newsletter December 21, 2004

NCRC E-Newsletter
December 20, 2004

In this issue:
* Make Plans Now For NCRC¹s Annual Conference
* OTS Attack on CRA Would Leave a Lump of Coal for Communities: Act Now to
SAVE CRA!
* NCRC¹s Global Fair Banking Initiative
* NCRC Asks HUD to Focus Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Underserved
Populations
* New HMDA Formats Released by the Federal Reserve Board
* NCRC Helps Arizona Member to Analyze Impediments to Lending
* NCRC Member, HAC, Hosts Successful Conference in Washington, DC
* DCMBDC Hosts First Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Day

Make Plans now for NCRC¹s Annual Conference!
Join Chairman Alan Greenspan and Dr. Julianne Malveaux at NCRC¹s Annual
Conference from Wed., March 16 through Saturday, March 19, 2005 in
Washington, DC. In addition to Capitol Hill visits, training sessions and
workshops led by experts in the field, this year¹s conference will also have
a special Global focus.

Plan on attending the ³Global Dialogue Day² on March 19th. Interactive
workshops in topical international economic justices areas in addition to a
plenary table of experts will focus on the impacts of predatory lending
worldwide and access to global capital.

Don¹t forget to take advantage of the early bird deadline and receive
discounted conference rates until February 16, 2005. The registration form
is available on line or the new issue of Reinvestment Works which is in the
mail. Hotel rooms must be reserved prior to February 16th to receive the
special discounted NCRC conference rate. To reserve your hotel room contact
the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill directly at 1-800-233-1234 and
reference the NCRC conference.

OTS Attack on CRA Would Leave a Lump of Coal for Communities: Act Now to
SAVE CRA!
NCRC and our 600 member organizations have geared up for another big fight
to stop the regulators from hacking away at the Community Reinvestment Act
(CRA). With the arrival of the holidays and the new year, the Office of
Thrift Supervision (OTS) handed communities a lump of coal by proposing
changes to CRA that would greatly reduce lending, investments, and banking
services in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Under the OTS proposal,
large thrifts with more than $1 billion in assets would be allowed to design
their own watered-down CRA exam. In addition, investments in affluent
neighborhoods in rural areas, for a ritzy golf course for example, would
earn CRA points. Ultimately, the OTS¹ proposal removes CRA¹s focus on low-
and moderate-income communities.

In response, NCRC is mobilizing a mass effort to oppose these changes.
Members, organizations, and concerned citizens are urged to send in comment
letters to the OTS by the January 24 deadline. An easy online form and other
resources are available on our website at www.ncrc.org. To learn more about
the OTS proposal and how you can help, please contact the NCRC Research
Department at 202-628-8866.

NCRC¹s Global Fair Banking Initiative (GFBI)
This Winter NCRC Global was involved in outreach efforts in Asia. The Global
Team represented NCRC at the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
Conference (IADL) in New Delhi, India and presented key aspects of the GFBI
project to IADL Bureau members. NCRC¹s position paper, ³Global Fair Banking
Initiative * Developmental Phase² received special recognition at the IADL
conference and was published in the IADL Journal, ³Racism and Racial
Discrimination² November 2004 issue. Lawyers from Asia, Europe, the Middle
East and North America participated in this conference, convened over by
judges of the Indian Supreme Court.

NCRC Asks HUD to Focus Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Underserved Populations
In November, as previously reported, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) increased the percentages of loans made to minority and
low- and moderate-income borrowers that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must
purchase. At the same time, HUD asked for comments about how to treat
refinance loans during years of heavy refinance volumes. Since refinance
volume can be quite unpredictable, HUD asked if purchases of refinance loans
should be treated differently than other loans when calculating Fannie Mae¹s
and Freddie Mac¹s compliance with the affordable housing goals.

NCRC, along with national consumer protection and fair housing
organizations, said that HUD must improve targeting by race and income in
the affordable housing goals in any proposal related to the treatment of
refinance lending. HUD will now consider comments and decide whether to
propose any special treatment of refinance lending. For more information,
contact NCRC¹s Research and Policy Department on 202-628-8866.

New HMDA Formats Released by the Federal Reserve Board
Each year, the Federal Reserve Board releases Home Mortgage Disclosure Data
(HMDA) data in raw form on CD roms and in hard copy table formats. The raw
data enables researchers to slice and dice the data in any way they see fit.
The hard copy tables, however, are important to community organizations that
wish to get quick information on lending trends and that do not have the
capacity to crunch the data from the CD roms. NCRC, therefore, believed
that the data displayed on the hard copy tables was very important to
community groups.

NCRC advocated that the Federal Reserve add detail to the table formats they
proposed in the spring. The Federal Reserve Board just issued final table
formats that are similar to their proposal. But the Federal Reserve added
some important data elements recommended by NCRC such as the new price data
for loans sold on the secondary market and for government-insured loans as
well as conventional loans. For more information, contact NCRC Research and
Policy on 202-628-8866

NCRC Helps Arizona Member to Analyze Impediments to Lending
The NCRC Research team recently assisted Southern Arizona Housing Center
(SAHC) with an analysis on the lending trends in Pima County and Arizona.
Similar to the findings in NCRC¹s Broken Credit System report, the data
suggested that prime lenders in Pima County could do a better job reaching
creditworthy borrowers in underserved neighborhoods. SAHC, a member
organization, plans to present the results in an impediment analysis to the
Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). For more information about
NCRC data analysis for member organizations, contact the Research Department
at 202-628-8866.


NCRC Member, HAC, Hosts Successful Conference in Washington, DC
On December 9-11, 2004, The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) held the
National Rural Housing Conference 2004 in Washington, DC. Numerous community
groups attended the conference from across the United States, acting as
participants as well as exhibitors and sponsors. NCRC sponsored an exhibit
that highlighted the recent OTS proposal to change CRA. Many of the
representatives from the different organizations expressed outrage over the
proposal. Attendees signed letters opposing the OTS proposal and vowed to
bring this issue up within their own communities. To register your
opposition to the OTS¹ plan to change CRA, use the on line form at
www.ncrc.org.

DCMBDC hosts first MED Day
The Minority Business Development Center (DCMBDC) established by NCRC to
serve the Washington, DC region held its first Minority Enterprise
Development (MED) Day on December 2nd. The event was a great success with
approximately 40 people in attendance. Feedback from participants was
extremely positive, especially with regard to the quality of information
presented.

Following the theme of Access to Capital, seminars included panel
discussions on equity (both angel and venture capital), debt (bank loans and
contract financing), and construction bonds. An extra workshop offered tips
on effective time management. In all cases, interaction with the audience
enabled presenters to respond to attendees¹ concerns and questions.

DCMBDC is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce¹s
Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and is one of 34 such centers
across the nation.

Please Note: Change of Address for NCRC
Effective January 1, 2005 NCRC¹s address will be:
NCRC
727 15th St., NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-628-8866 (same)
Fax: 202-628-9800 (same)

Happy Holidays!

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