FDIC Federal Register Citations

From: aoapoplar@earthlink.net [mailto:aoapoplar@earthlink.net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 4:35 PM
To: Comments
Subject: SPAM::Community Reinvestment - RIN 3064-AC50

name: Allison Adams
address: 142 Poplar Circle
city_st: Decatur, GA
zipcode: 30030
I strongly oppose the proposed rule changes in the Community Reinvestment Act (RIN 3064-AC50). This action will do harm to rural communities. : Southern Bancorp, a bank in the Mississippi Delta, plows 100% of it's profits back into four non-profit agencies--a community development fund, two housing assistance funds, and an alternative lender. They are able to do this because large banks give them the financing money to use as part of their Community Reinvestment Act commitment. Southern Bancorp makes loans in the very poorest part of the country. Thanks to their work, a great number of small and mid-sized towns in the Delta can now point to improvements in their quality of life, in their prospects for the future, in their hopes for their children. Southern was critical in getting a medical center to locate in Helena, Ark, in the heart of the Delta. Southern's affiliate land development lender was able to renovate parts of downtown Arkedelphia, turning an 85 percent vac!
ancy rate into a 90 percent occupancy rate.

Without the CRA, Southern will be unable to do much of its work, and will undoubtably eventually be swallowed up by a major regional or national bank with no particular interest in keeping branches open in communities in which the median income is below the poverty line.

Please do not allow this to happen. Do not approve the proposed rule changes.