Banking & Credit

Organizations Submit Comments to Board, FDIC and OCC on Proposal to Amend Regulations Implementing the Community Reinvestment Act

 |  Testimony & Comments

CFA joined two separate coalition comments to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively “the agencies”) on the proposal to amend regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA).

In one set of comments, organizations urged the agencies to further expand the list of climate-related eligible activities under the CRA, explicitly utilize race as a metric in CRA examinations, encourage banks to increase community engagement and relationship building with climate and environmental justice organizations, consider how bank investments contribute to climate change, and to not raise the small and intermediate small bank asset thresholds.

In another set of comments, the organizations wrote that amended regulations to the CRA should include the following:
  • Retain the positive aspects of the CRA while significantly expanding its reach to meet the needs of the community today
  • Financial institution lending and deposit product offerings to people of color should be included, and scored, in CRA exams
  • Both community input, and requirements that banks build better relationships with LMI communities, are critical to improving the inclusiveness of financial institution banking services
  • Financial institutions should get credit for providing language access services in credit and deposit products, and in community service activities