As old civil rights laws update for the digital age, they're meeting new resistance.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Benashore, in for David Brancaccio.

For many years, banks actively avoided investing in lower income and minority communities.

Decades ago, a federal law attempted to prevent that from happening.

Recently, regulators have tried to update the rules to reflect a world of online

banking. Now a ruling by a federal judge in Texas has put those updates which are supposed to take effect

today on hold. Here's Marketplace's Henry up.

The Community Reinvestment Act is supposed to make sure banks

give out loans in low and moderate income areas.

The law was passed in 1977

after decades of disinvestment in many urban communities.

Under the CRA, banks need to show regulators that they're giving out loans to individuals

and businesses near their branches, which can result in more lending in areas that might not otherwise get it.

Regulators want to update the law to take online and mobile banking into account.

Under the new rules, banks would be assessed on how they're serving low-income

customers and communities where they provide large numbers of loans, even if those loans are mostly

offered online.

Banking groups argue the updates go too far, and could disincentivize banks from

lending in certain areas and they also say that the agencies proposing the new rules

overstepped their authority. The banking groups along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sued in February.

The judge's ruling means the new regulations won't take effect while that lawsuit plays out.

I'm Henry Epp from Marketplace.

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