ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300064
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
NationsBank Corp. reported Wednesday that it made $4.5 million in loans or direct investments in Roanoke last year under terms of the federal Community Reinvestment Act.
The law encourages banks to support low-and moderate-income areas in their markets. Compliance with the law is one of the criteria in the regular examination of banks and often is a consideration when banks seek approval for mergers.
NationsBank was the first of the banks operating in Roanoke to report 1995 results under the program. The company said its Roanoke total over the past four years was $25.8 million.
NationsBank pledged in 1991 to lend at least $10 billion within 10 years across the entire Southeast region it serves to low-and moderate-income areas. That total is now $13.4 billion.
The new report includes only Roanoke. Douglas Waters, executive officer for the NationsBank Mountain Region, said the figures do not include mortgage refinancings, credit card loans or indirect loans.
Of the community reinvestment loans made last year, 75 percent went to consumers and the rest to businesses. Of the consumer loans, Waters said NationsBank made 62 home mortgage and home improvement loans totaling $2.4 million in low-and moderate-income census tracts. In the four years, the company total for 337 housing-related loans is $12.6 million.
In addition, NationsBank last year made 98 other consumer loans totaling $958,000 to residents of underserved areas for cars, home appliances, debt consolidations and other financial needs. The four-year total in that category comes to 657 loans of $6.6 million.
Waters said business lending last year included 12 loans in those census tracts totaling $1.1 million. Over four years, the total is 102 loans totaling $6.7 million.
"Frankly, we are not satisfied with our small-business lending performance in Roanoke," Waters said. "We are seeking to be more aggressive in looking for and booking good business."
To that end, he said, NationsBank in Roanoke recently formed a Business Banking unit to meet the needs of small businesses. Waters said the bank intends to book more Small Business Administration and other government-guaranteed loans.
NationsBank received 226 applications for home mortgage and home improvement loans from Roanoke residents and approved 159, with a value of $8.8 million. Of these, 55 or 35 percent were made to low-or moderate-income families, regardless of the census tract in which they lived, and totaled $1.8 million.
Waters said NationsBank also helped increase the supply of affordable housing by financing properties held by nonprofit housing groups such as the Northwest Neighborhood Environmental Organization.
A spokeswoman for the Office of the Controller of the Currency in Washington, D.C., said she could not give figures showing how NationsBank's community reinvestment in Roanoke compares with that of the other banks serving this market.
She said the banking regulatory agency's records include figures categorized by specific banks, rather than by communities. She said she did not know of any agency that compiles such records for communities.
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