City Council gives preliminary approval to Responsible Banking Review Committee

A City Council committee this morning voted out a bill introduced by Councilman Wilson Goode, Jr. that would establish a Council-led Responsible Banking Review Committee to provide more oversight of the community reinvestment goals and strategic plans to address lending disparities required of banks in which the city deposits money.

“As banks have consolidated and grown into super-regional or even national in size, many have become less focused on serving individual markets and less responsive to local community credit needs,” The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development said in a statement supporting the legislation. “Responsible Banking Ordinances are important tools local governments can enact to ensure that the banks that operate and take deposits in their communities are truly responding to credit needs within those communities.”

The bill will come up for a final vote during Council’s session next Thursday.