Consumer Law

Karikari Paper on CRA and Subprime Lending

By Jeff Sovern

John A. Karikari of the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has written The CRA and Subprime Lending in Neighborhoods: Myth or Reality?  Here's the abstract:

I examine the CRA?s impact on approvals of non-prime loans for riskier borrowers largely responsible for the current mortgage crisis in the United States. Using loan applications data for several major metropolitan cities, and recognizing the existing CRA regulations on assessment areas and affiliate lending, I find that while CRA lenders were likely to disproportionately approve subprime loans than FHA loans in most cities, these lenders were not more or less likely to approve subprime loans in low and moderate income (LMI) communities. Thus, the CRA may have played a role in proliferation of subprime lending across communities, but not disproportionately in LMI communities - the areas receiving the most intense CRA scrutiny.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on February 11, 2010 (boomark / email).