First Analysis: Federal Banking Agencies Revise Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Regulation

This practice note provides an overview of the updated regulations aimed at modernizing the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA). CRA ratings are important, among other things, to a bank’s application for branches, mergers, and acquisitions, relocations, and deposit insurance. On May 5, 2022, the three federal bank regulatory agencies responsible for administering the CRA, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (collectively referred to as the agencies), jointly issued proposed regulations to address the CRA's traditional concerns of expanded access to credit, investment, and other banking services for low- and moderate-income persons and communities. The proposal additionally pushed benefits toward areas and persons that have historically benefitted least from CRA-related activities and for the first time the regulations incorporate considerations related ...