Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting recently visited Native American pueblos in New Mexico as part of a nationwide effort to discuss modernizing Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations and opportunities to bring more investment, lending and services to underserved areas.
Otting met with tribal officials, community leaders, officials from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and bankers. The group visited the Santa Ana, San Felipe and the Kewa pueblos, as well as the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Following the tour, the comptroller facilitated a roundtable discussion on how to update CRA regulations and promote more banking activity where it is needed most.
“While CRA has driven trillions of dollars in investment since 1977, more needs to be done to ensure banks are motivated to maintain and increase investment, lending and services in rural areas, including Native American communities like the ones we visited today,” Otting said in a news release.
Cristina Danforth, board president of the Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA), Oneida Nation, said modernizing the CRA would better serve rural America and Indian Country’s need for healthy capital and depository services .
“The foundations of effective tribal economic development policies are built together and in collaboration with all members of the community. By introducing our federal partners to Indian Country, we hope they take this community spirit back to Washington D.C. and work towards policies that will build strong tribal economies,” Danforth said in the release.
The New Mexico tour was the fourth in a series of events being held across the country to hear from stakeholders on how CRA has supported their communities and what more can be done. The conversations are informing the OCC’s ongoing effort to work with other federal banking agencies to develop and issue a proposed rule to make CRA regulations work better for everyone. Otting expects the interagency proposal will be issued this fall, the release stated.
“We can make CRA work better and drive more banking activity to communities that are underserved today by clarifying what counts for CRA credit, updating where activity qualifies, making evaluations of bank CRA performance more objective, and reporting results in a more timely and transparent manner,” Otting said.