MNI TRANSCRIPT: Powell on CRA

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following is the portion of a transcript from

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference after the FOMC meeting

Wednesday:

     Q: Do you support Governor Brainard's community activism reform and is this

something we could see the Fed formally propose at some point?

     A: So let me say that I think this is a good time to do -- to update CRA

really, in a way that is a win-win both for the intended beneficiaries low and

moderate income communities and also for banks that would like to have more

certainty about what does and doesn't qualify and that sort of thing. The law

can be both more effective and more efficient as it comes down to it and we

think this is a good way -- and it's just also a good time to take on board the

way the delivery of banking services has changed through technology and

demographic change as well. We worked very hard to try to get on the same page

with the other two agencies. We think that an inter-agency final rule together

would be the best outcome. We're sorry that we haven't been able to get there

and we still hold out some hope that we will be able to. We spent a lot of time

on research and analysis and looking at meaningful reform. You see Governor

Brainard's recent speech presenting some of the thinking and analysis, and we

haven't made decisions on what we'll do, or what we'll process. Our focus is

entirely on trying to get to an agreement with the OCC really, so haven't made

any decisions about what we'll do going forward. In terms of Governor Brainard

led our oversight Committee over the activities for many years and I asked her

to take the lead on CRA modernization, which is a high priority for us. I was

comfortable with her speech and I'm comfortable with the work that we've done

and with the Fed's position on this. As I said, we haven't chosen to bring a

proposal forward, we haven't decided what to do going forward, and we're not

going to comment on the other proposal, it's just not appropriate to do. It's

not about us, it's not about our views, it's about the views of the interested

parties.

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202 371 2121; email: brooke.migdon@marketnews.com

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