LEIMERT PARK : Data on Banks’ Loan Practices Sought

As a first step toward bolstering local economic and commercial development, a committee of nine local business people and one attorney have begun a grass-roots effort to gather data on the lending practices of banks in Crenshaw and South Los Angeles.

James Watt, a restaurant owner who is spearheading the effort, said it is high time that community business owners begin holding financial institutions--rather than politicians--accountable for the lack of economic growth in their own neighborhoods.

“Banks are basically brokering our money, and we’re not seeing any improvements. Money is flowing out of our area by the truckload,” he said. “The first thing we have to do as a community is arm ourselves with information.”

Watt and his committee have worked since May to obtain data from local branches of Bank of America, Union Bank, Imperial Bank, Sumitomo Bank, Wells Fargo and First Interstate Bank. The most crucial information for the banks to provide, Watt said, is the Community Redevelopment Agency’s annual evaluation of the bank and each institution’s breakdown of personal, home and business loans by ethnicity and ZIP codes. The committee is also gathering similar information from banks in more prosperous areas, such as Westchester and Torrance, for comparison.

Although he requested the information in writing from each banks’ headquarters several months ago, Watt said he has yet to receive any written response and is having trouble finding the right bank officials to talk to.

Some bank officials denied that their institutions are reluctant to release such information, most of which is available to the public under the Community Reinvestment Act. The 1977 federal law requires financial institution regulators to encourage banks under their supervision to meet the credit needs of all sectors of the communities they serve.

“We’re happy to provide the information,” said Bank of America spokesman Russ Yarrow. “We are prohibited by law to keep statistics on the ethnic breakdown of certain kinds of loans, but we do compile information by census tracts and it is available.”

An Imperial Bank spokesman agreed. “If Mr. Watt or anybody else wants that information, all they have to do is contact us,” he said. “We respond regularly to community organizations. Imperial Bank started right here in South Los Angeles.”

Representatives of Sumitomo, Union, Wells Fargo and First Interstate acknowledged that information in the CRA evaluation is available; however, some of them said other loan applicant information is disclosed at the banks’ discretion.

“Large banks have very little connection to the central L.A. communities,” said committee member Jim De Maegt, a civil rights attorney and Inglewood resident. “Our goal is to change that by forcing them to live up to the community commitment they say they have. Our first step is evaluating this basic data to see if large-scale improvements are really being made.”