Banks’ community lending small, but mighty

During the past four years, as the worst financial crisis in decades hit Colorado and the nation and as banks were hammered publicly for making risky loans and bad business decisions, a small band of eight regional banks in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley were out making loans to the smallest of small businesses and others in their communities.

All eight of them worked hard enough that they passed the federal audit test that determines whether they are complying with what’s known as the Community Reinvestment Act.

Passed in 1977, the act was designed to help eradicate such iffy lending practices…