Bank Watchdog Warns Against Climate Redlining in Rule Revamp

Federal regulators must avoid creating a “climate red-line map” in updated community lending rules as pressure mounts for banks to account for climate change risks, acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu said.

Bank regulators expect to release a proposal for modernizing the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1978 anti-redlining law, in the “not-too-distant future,” Hsu said Monday.

The law is intended to address historic redlining that has kept Black, Latino and other minority communities from getting access to credit. Regulators measure how well banks lend to targeted neighborhoods, with a poor grade potentially limiting merger activity or branch growth.

But ...