Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts. Photo by Pete Marovich | Bloomberg

Massachusetts’ senior senator wants the interim head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to rescind his predecessor’s efforts to update the agency’s Community Reinvestment Act regulations.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to Acting Comptroller Brian Brooks earlier this week that called changes to the anti-redlining rule “rushed,” tainted by former Comptroller Joseph Otting’s conflicts of interest, and said they “make a mockery of the law’s intent.” Otting announced his resignation one day after releasing the OCC’s final rule amid condemnation from community groups, affordable housing developers and some bankers. The final rule did not attract support from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. or the Federal Reserve, the two other federal bank regulators.

“Indeed, during a time of nearly-unprecedented political polarization, Comptroller Otting managed to unite consumer and community groups, elected officials, outside experts, and the banking industry with agreement over how fundamentally flawed his plans were,” Warren wrote. “As a result, Mr. Otting has made it easier for banks to discriminate against individuals and communities, and created a complex system where banks
have different CRA rules based on the regulatory agency that charters them. Such a process benefits no one.”

Warren added that while the OCC’s final CRA rule eliminated some of the provisions most concerning to its opponents, it still relied on evaluating banks using metrics that, Warren charged, “would essentially allow banks to satisfy their CRA obligations by making a few large investments each year while ignoring the needs of the communities in which they are located.”

Warren also called on Brooks to recuse himself from future CRA rulemaking thanks to his close association with Otting at OneWest Bank, where they both worked as senior executives prior to their roles in government and which was accused by federal regulators of foreclosure abuses and was sued by community groups alleging racial discrimination in its branch strategy.