Thursday, January 01, 2009


CRA Defenses Sound More Like CYA
...A careful reading of the 99-page report finds evidence that seems to undercut his conclusion that CRA loans are just as safe. For example, the study found that "nearly 90% of large banking institutions report higher 30-89 day delinquency rates for CRA-related home lending than for overall home lending."

That little gem was left out of Kroszner's argument, along with this one: "CRA-related home loans do not appear to perform as well as other home loans when the analysis is conducted on a per CRA-dollar basis."...

...The cause and effect is clear. As ex-Fed chief Alan Greenspan recently testified: "It's instructive to go back to the early stages of the subprime market, which has essentially emerged out of the CRA."

It strains credulity for top regulators to now say the CRA had "absolutely nothing" to do with the subprime crisis. It smacks of political spin and bureaucratic CYA.