CRA Comment letters submitted during a bank's regular CRA examination. Woodstock Institute regularly comments on bank mergers throughout the Chicago region, and the nation. For information on a specific bank, please contact Woodstock Institute through the comment page.
Comment letter in response to Netbank’s 2002 proposed CRA Strategic Plan. The letter commends Netbank for significantly expanding its CRA assessment area to include the following states in their entirety: Arizona, California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. This is an improvement over the more limited assessment area that the Bank put forth in its last CRA Strategic Plan.
Comment letter in reponse to E*TRADE Bank’s 2003 Needs to Improve CRA rating. As one of the largest banks to ever fail a CRA exam, the letter suggests that E*TRADE Bank should formulate a strong and appropriate response.
Comment letter on the 2003 CRA examination of LaSalle Bank, N.A. Addresses the overall poor performance with regards to lending to minority households, the low level of multifamily loan origination to minority and low-income borrowers, the lack of small business start-up loan products, and the inequitable distribution of bank branches.
Comment letter requesting that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation consider the payday lending operations in its current safety and soundness examinations of Republic Bank & Trust.
Comment letter on the 2004 CRA examination of The Northern Trust Company. Our analysis of Northern Trust’s mortgage lending shows room for improvement in certain of the bank’s product lines, however, Northern Trust’s home purchase lending to African-Americans and refinance lending to African-Americans and Hispanics appear fairly strong. The bank is also a strong investor in the Chicago CDFI industry.
