NCRC Blasts OCC Anti-Spitzer Move

John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, says it is "shameful" that the OCC is attempting to block the New York attorney general's civil rights investigation of discriminatory lending practices."This is a perverse use of federal regulatory authority," he said. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has filed suit against Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, seeking a declaratory judgment and preliminary injunction to prevent him from interfering in the OCC's fair-lending supervision at national banks. Mr. Spitzer said it is "unconscionable that the OCC would help the banks it regulates draft litigation to shield them from reasoned enforcement of consumer protection …" He said the evidence from leading banks has shown a significant racial disparity that could violate state civil rights law, which his office is responsible for enforcing. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the OCC is asking to permanently prohibit Spitzer from inspecting the records of any national bank or its operating subsidiaries. Last month, his civil rights bureau began a probe into the lending practices of at least four national banks to determine through Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data whether discriminatory lending practices have been used in the interest rates and fees charged on mortgage loans.