Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

The federal bank regulatory agencies today announced the annual adjustment to the asset-size thresholds used to define small bank, small savings association, intermediate small bank, and intermediate small savings association under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations.  The annual adjustments are required by the CRA rules. Financial institutions are evaluated under different CRA examinations procedures based upon their asset-size classification. Those meeting the small and intermediate small asset-size threshold are not subjected to the reporting requirements applicable to large banks.

Annual adjustments to these asset-size thresholds are based on the change in the average of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for urban wage earners and clerical workers, not seasonally adjusted, for each 12-month period ending in November, with rounding to the nearest million.

As a result of the 3.43 percent increase in the CPI index for the period ending in November 2011, the definitions of small and intermediate small institutions for CRA examinations will change as follows:

• "Small bank" or "small savings association" means an institution that, as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years, had assets of less than $1.160 billion.
• "Intermediate small bank" or "intermediate small savings association" means a small institution with assets of at least $290 million as of December 31 of both of the prior two calendar years, and less than $1.160 billion as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years.

These asset-size threshold adjustments are effective January 1, 2012. The agencies will publish the adjustments in the Federal Register. In addition, the agencies will post a list of the current and historical asset-size thresholds on the website of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

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