Oklahoma Bankers Association We make bankers better!
The American Bankers Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Independent Community Bankers of America, Texas Bankers Association, Independent Bankers Association of Texas, Amarillo Chamber of Commerce and Longview Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit on Feb. 5 in the Northern District of Texas against the Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC for exceeding their statutory authority and acting arbitrarily and capriciously with their recent amendments to the Community Reinvestment Act rules.
The lawsuit asks the court to vacate the Final Rules, and the groups will also seek a preliminary injunction pausing the new rules while the court decides the merits of the case.
The complaint explains how the new rules will limit future bank lending, and identifies how the regulatory agencies exceeded their statutory authority in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act by:
Evaluating bank lending well beyond banks’ deposit-taking footprint, as required by CRA. The Final Rules will evaluate bank lending across the entire country, eliminating the statutory focus on a bank’s lending in its “local community.”
Evaluating some institutions’ records of providing deposit products and services to low- and -moderate-income consumers even though the CRA only authorizes regulators to assess a bank’s record of meeting the credit needs of its local communities.
The ABA and its co-plaintiffs will call on the court to immediately intervene and issue a preliminary injunction that will prevent the new rules from taking effect. In addition, the plaintiffs will ask the court to issue an order and judgment setting aside the CRA rules as illegal or impermissible.
You can read the full languge of the legal action via the ABA website at https://www.aba.com/advocacy/policy-analysis/trade-associations-sue-regulators-cra.