Joseph Flatley, president and CEO of Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. (MHIC), is testifying today before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, D.C. on legislation to preserve strong enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). 

On July 8th Congressman Frank proposed H.R. 3126 to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), an independent agency with a range of rulemaking, information-gathering, supervisory and enforcement tools to better protect consumers who purchase financial products from banks and non-bank financial institutions. 

Frank, along with Flatley and other affordable housing and community development advocates, strongly support preserving the current federal banking regulators’ role to enforce the CRA.

Flatley is testifying on behalf of MHIC and the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL), a nonprofit membership organization that Flatley has chaired.

"CRA is a success story in emerging markets and a very big business," said Flately. "The magnitude of real estate investment from CRA is not well known: banks have invested nearly $1 trillion dollars in Low Income Housing Tax Credits over the past 20 years, and another $90 billion dollars in New Markets Tax Credits in just eight years. In addition, CRA annually funnels another $400 billion dollars in loans and investments to low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities, financing affordable rental housing, home purchases, charter schools, daycare facilities, and small business and microenterprise loans."