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Statement from Marisa Calderon, President and CEO of Prosperity Now

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“The Community Reinvestment Act has helped shape access to responsible credit, homeownership, small-business financing, and community development for nearly five decades. Efforts to improve the framework’s clarity, consistency, and efficiency should preserve the incentives that encourage financial institutions to meet local needs and partner with community organizations.

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Every organization pays close attention to how it is evaluated. Banks are no different. What gets measured gets managed, and activities that receive less emphasis can gradually receive fewer resources, less executive attention, and lower strategic priority.

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Those choices are felt around kitchen tables and throughout local economies. CRA helps shape whether a family can find a small mortgage or an affordable bank account, whether an entrepreneur can access responsible capital, and whether a housing counselor, free tax preparation site, financial coach, Community Development Financial Institution, or local nonprofit has the resources to serve its community.

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Modernization and accountability can advance together. Regulatory requirements should be clear, workable, and proportionate to a bank’s size and business model while maintaining meaningful incentives for locally responsive lending, attainable homeownership, small-business financing, responsible financial products, and effective nonprofit partnerships.

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Prosperity Now will submit formal comments and work with community organizations, financial institutions, practitioners, and other stakeholders to help regulators understand what the proposal could mean in practice. Organizations that have participated in CRA partnerships or witnessed their value firsthand should review the proposal and make their voices heard during the public comment process.”

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