Small Lenders Alarmed at Their Inclusion in Anti-Redlining Rule

Randy Benjenk’s commentary was included in a Bloomberg Law article covering how new rules updating the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) will affect smaller community banks. Randy commented on how the new rules will affect banks’ lending practices.

Despite regulators’ efforts to tailor the rule, Randy observed, banks ultimately will be measured against their peer institutions operating in the same neighborhoods. And a bank with trillions of dollars in assets is going to have an easier time performing well on CRA exams than a bank with only $2 billion. “There’s a little bit of tailoring of the requirements and the costs, but in terms of the bread-and-butter core evaluations that large banks are going to be subjected to, the 2s to 10s are going to be right there in the same waters as the 10-pluses,” he said.