WASHINGTON, D.C. - November 5, 2003 - The Reverend William Somplatsky-Jarman of the Presbyterian Church USA testified today that shareholders are not served by predatory lending practices and have been working with America's largest banks to ensure access to capital for underserved communities.

"Shareholders play an essential role in preventing abusive lending practices," Rev. Somplatsky-Jarman explained to a joint hearing of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit and the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. "We favor long term profitability through responsible lending. This is what builds strong communities and shareholder value. There may be short term profit for a few from predatory lending, but it pales in comparison to the harm it inflicts upon vulnerable people and society."

The Presbyterian Church USA is a member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of faith-based institutional investors which urges companies to be socially and environmentally responsible. Each year ICCR-member religious institutional investors sponsor over 100 shareholder resolutions on major social and environmental issues. Rev. Somplatsky-Jarman sits on ICCR's Governing Board.

Rev. Somplatsky-Jarman was joined by John Lind, Ph.D., executive director of CANICCOR , a non-profit research organization that assists ICCR on financial services issues. "Smaller predatory lenders that tend to operate below the radar screen need to sell their loans into the secondary market in order to have funds to make more loans," Lind said. "Therefore we want the secondary market issuers and underwriters, who put together these securities, to be more vigilant in their screening. They must screen not only those who make the loans but also the companies which service the loans. The servicers take monthly payments and deal with any delinquencies and foreclosures. One such firm is alleged to have recorded on-time payments as late and initiated foreclosures in order to collect additional fees." CANICCOR is a national leader in research on the secondary market for mortgage loans. He continued, "The question is how to require greater responsibility by the secondary market issuers and underwriters."

"In 2003 alone, the Presbyterian Church USA and other ICCR Members engaged over two dozen financial institutions, including Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, and Wells Fargo Corporation, on issues ranging from predatory practices to compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act" reported Dan Rosan, Program Director for Access to Capital at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. "Our impact is widely felt as financial institutions realize that in today's economy, every stakeholder is important to their business."

ICCR is a thirty-year-old international coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors with combined portfolios worth an estimated $100 billion. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) traces its history to the 16th century and the Protestant Reformation. Today the Church has approximately 2.5 million members, 11,200 congregations and 21,000 ordained ministers. CANICCOR provides research analysis on the social performance of financial corporations as well as consulting services for institutional investors, especially church investors.