Kennedy: Toughen Fair Lending Enforcement

Democratic congressmen are calling on federal regulators to toughen their enforcement of fair lending laws in light of a new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act report that shows little or no growth in purchase money lending to racial and ethnic groups in 1997."When it comes to enforcing fair lending, our regulators are paper tigers," Rep. Joseph Kennedy, D, Mass., said at a press conference Thursday. Rep. Kennedy sent a letter, signed by 10 other congressmen, that calls on the regulators to beef up enforcement of fair lending laws and the Community Reinvestment Act. Meanwhile, Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo said that mortgage denial rates in the HMDA report confirm the need for a mortgage lending discrimination study that he ordered from the Urban Institute in March. The comprehensive study, which should be completed by year end, "will help HUD intensify its crackdown on mortgage lending discrimination and increase the minority homeownership rate," Secretary Cuomo said. The HMDA report released Thursday shows that the denial rate for blacks seeking conventional loans is still over 50%.