New Consumer Advisory Council Members

The Federal Reserve Board has released its annual appointment list for the Consumer Advisory Council. This year, there is strong representation from the banking industry, but stronger representation of CRA skills. This appears to signal the FRB's expectation that CRA issues - and mortgage lending - will be a leading concern in the coming years.

Representing the banking industry will be Dorothy Broadman, SVP and Manager of Community Development at Cal Fed Bank, FSB, Teresa Bryce, General Counsel of Bank of America Mortgage Corporation, and M. Dean Keyes, SVP and Director of Corporate/Community Reinvestment for Mercantile Bancorporation.

Other lending industry representatives on the CAC will be Lester Firstenberger, SVP and General Counsel of Mortgage Lenders Network USA, Inc., a large subprime lender, and Russell Schrader, SVP and Assistant General Counsel for Visa, U.S.A., Inc.

Two other new members bring economic development skills to the CAC. Robert Cheadle serves as Business Developer for the Chickasaw Enterprises, the economic development division of the Chickasaw Nation. Jeremy Nowak is the Chief Executive Officer of The Reinvestment Fund, a community development financial institution.

It should be no surprise if the CAC, with its new members added to the CRA forces, make recommendations on community reinvestment. In making these appointments, the FRB may be looking ahead to the promised review of the CRA regulations in 2002.

Copyright © 2000 Compliance Action. Originally appeared in Compliance Action, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2/00