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ILLINOIS--Two years after a group of ministers and others formed the Central Illinois Organizing Project, they held a news conference with officials from the largest bank in the Midwest, Bank One, to announce a lending agreement.

The agreement came out of a challenge and several visits from the heart of Illinois--the group is based in downstate Bloomington, the college towns of Champaign-Urbana, state capital city Springfield, and other towns in the area--to Washington, D.C. to meet with staff from the Comptroller of the Currency's office, the regulator for the mega-bank.

"We want good people to have access to good loans," the Rev. Robert Freeman told one local newspaper reporter.

A bank official who participated in a joint news conference to announce the lending agreement conceded to the same reporter that as a result of the group's efforts his bank would "put a little more emphasis on mortgage lending in central Illinois."