NAACP Urges Bank Not to Close Compton Branch

In public displays and closed-door meetings, community groups in Los Angeles and across the country are speaking out this week against what they consider to be discriminatory banking practices that hurt inner-city residents.

Locally, the Compton branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People presented its concerns Wednesday to Bank of America executives over the bank’s plan to close one of its branches.

Nationally, the Greenlining Coalition--an alliance of minority and consumer organizations--will urge President-elect Clinton today to enforce laws requiring banks to serve inner cities, and to give them new incentives to make loans in minority communities.

In a 10-point plan outlined in a newspaper advertisement, the Greenlining Coalition asked Clinton to appoint banking regulators committed to the enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act and to impose a 100-day moratorium on bank mergers while tougher community lending guidelines are devised.

Difficulty in getting bank loans is widely cited as a key roadblock to economic development in South Los Angeles and other inner-city areas.

Robert Gnaizda, general counsel for the coalition, said Wednesday that the advertisement was timed to influence Clinton’s economic summit in Little Rock, Ark., next week and to remind him of previous statements supporting more stringent community reinvestment rules.

“We want to counteract the growing banking lobby efforts to deregulate the CRA,” said Gnaizda, a San Francisco attorney. “We believe the President-elect will keep his campaign promises.”

At the heart of the Compton conflict are plans by Bank of America, as part of its merger with Security Pacific National Bank, to close a Security Pacific branch on Rosecrans Boulevard and shift its accounts to a branch one mile east in Gardena.

Community leaders complain that there are only six banks in Compton and that the planned branch closing would eliminate the only bank in the western part of the city, undermining rejuvenation efforts.

“We want to keep the money in Compton,” said Royce Esters, president of the Compton branch of the NAACP, who met with bank executives at a Bank of America office in Compton. “We’d lose business and sales tax money” if the branch was closed, he said.

After a 1 1/2-hour closed-door meeting, the bank agreed to review its plans and present alternatives to community officials next week, spokeswoman Julie Jasper said.

But for now the Security Pacific branch remains scheduled for closure in March, much to the displeasure of its customers. Located in a shopping center, the branch is patronized heavily by nearby retirees who say its relocation would be a major inconvenience.

“The people need a bank at this location,” said clothing store owner Vincent A. Callender Sr. after tending to his business and personal accounts at the Compton branch Wednesday morning. “There would be a tremendous void here.”

A day earlier, concerns about the Bank of America-Security Pacific merger were raised by minority leaders who presented their grievances against local banks and other financial institutions at a hearing conducted by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

“I fear that the combination of these two large banks will reduce competition and thus the motivation to serve communities such as mine,” said state Sen. Diane E. Watson (D-Los Angeles). “I am not yet convinced that Bank of America has persuaded community residents and enterprises that this merger is in their long-term best interests.”

But in his remarks before the commission, John F. Destouet, a Bank of America vice president, said none of the bank closures associated with the merger “will reduce the level of banking services provided in the community.”