Credit to the Community (Cities and Contemporary Society): Community Reinvestment and Fair Lending Policy in the United States FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Credit to the Community provides the an 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 even 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 United States to the ongoing support government provides through the subsidization of secondary markets and the maintenance of critical regulatory infrastructure." Dan Immergluck takes issue with those calling for deregulation of financial services - especially in the arena of fair lending and consumer protection - and gives a new voice to rationales for such social contract policies as the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). He also provides a long-term analysis on the failure of federal bank regulators to enforce the CRA and shows how successful periods of 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 twenty-first century.
SYNOPSIS
Immergluck (School of Public and Non-profit Administration, Grand Valley State U.) explores the impact of public policy on household and small business access to credit and basic financial services in the United States. He focuses on the Community Reinvestment Act and the federal fair lending laws, with some additional attention paid to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, Federal Housing Administration, and other programs and policies. The major themes he explores are the ways financial markets have benefitted from government support and regulation through history, the fact that credit markets often have problems of discrimination and market failure, the generally poor job regulators have done in implementing reinvestment and fair lending laws, and the relatively positive impact of these regulations notwithstanding. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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