For immediate release

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday agreed to seek comment on an interagency proposal to revise regulations that implement the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

The Community Reinvestment Act is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet credit needs in their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The agencies are proposing limited amendments to the regulation in two areas. First, the definition of "small institution," a category of institutions entitled to streamlined CRA evaluations, would be amended to include banks and thrifts with total assets of less than $500 million (the threshold is now $250 million), and eliminate consideration of an institution's holding company size (now, an institution is not "small" if its holding company is larger than $1 billion).

Second, the proposal would specify when unlawful discrimination, other illegal credit practices, or abusive asset-based lending by a bank or its affiliate might adversely affect the bank's CRA rating.

The agencies also propose enhancements to the loan data they disclose in CRA public evaluations and CRA disclosure statements.

A notice of proposed rulemaking will be published jointly after it has been acted upon by all of the banking agencies with CRA supervisory responsibilities.

The public is invited to comment on the proposal. The public comment period will be open for 60 days following publication of the proposal in the Federal Register.

2004 Banking and consumer regulatory policy