Some of the banking industry’s most powerful trade groups sued the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Monday, claiming that the regulators overstepped their authority in updating a law meant to reverse the effects of redlining. In October, the regulators imposed new frameworks for assessing whether banks are abiding by the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to do business in neighborhoods made up largely of racial minorities or low-income households that they typically shunned. The lawsuit said the rule was “a complicated and burdensome regime” and might “ultimately result in reduced lending to the very populations that the C.R.A. was designed to benefit.”The suit was filed by the American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, trade groups that represent virtually all U.S. banks. Several Texas groups joined as plaintiffs, allowing the Washington-based groups to sue in federal court in that state, where they have already won favorable rulings against the regulators.

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Persons: “ Organizations: Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America, U.S . Chamber of Commerce, Texas Locations: Washington