The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is sure getting plenty of attention, but not enough has been said about the role First Union and NationsBank played in growing ACORN. Simply put, ACORN could not exist as it does now without the aid and assistance the activist group received from Charlotte’s growing banks of the 90s and early 2000s.
With every bank acquisition, the banks entered into “community development” agreements with ACORN and other activist groups in order to avoid Community Reinvestment Act hang-ups to the merger deals. These agreements explicitly committed the banks to lend billions in “underserved” communities and often involved ACORN “pre-screening” loan applicants before the banks saw the customers. The upshot was the participating bank’s normal lending standards were bypassed and, as we’ve seen, that practice has led to untold losses for the financial sector as a whole.
Even the breaking vote fraud angle is old news for ACORN in Charlotte. Recall the homeless voting scandal of 2005.
But let’s also be clear about this: There is no real partisan angle to be played in this mess. If Democrats used groups like ACORN to further their social agenda and spread “free” money amongst the poor, Republican bankers were more than happy to go along with the charade and book fake loans while they collected six-figure bonuses for hitting “revenue” targets and pumping the stock price.
Much of Charlotte’s wealth is derived from those shady dealings, a shame that boosters both left and right are too eager to forget.
