OCC

Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting says the revised Community Reinvestment Act will provide more credit access to communities in need and won't, as some had feared, create new thresholds for grading banks.

The final regulation will significantly revise a December proposal, responding to concerns from stakeholders. Meanwhile, in a surprising move, the regulator who had championed the reforms is expected to resign this week.

Operation HOPE Chief Executive John Hope Bryant talks about how the Community Reinvestment Act influenced him at the age of 9 and eventually led to the founding of his nonprofit, which works with banks to help communities in need. But he says the 1977 law is outdated.

The interim rule will allow institutions with over $250 billion of assets to exclude certain assets from the supplementary leverage ratio to help them respond to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Critics of the Community Reinvestment Act revamp want to freeze the rulemaking process. That would only delay financial help to New York and other hard-hit cities.

At a Senate hearing with all the bank regulators, Joseph Otting got an earful over his agency’s decision to move forward with Community Reinvestment Act reform during the pandemic. Lawmakers also urged the Fed to speed up the rollout of coronavirus relief programs.

The OCC is plowing ahead on plans to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act, but a growing consensus of industry and community voices says now is not the time for a major overhaul.

The agencies issued a rule to better enable banks to participate in two of the Federal Reserve’s lending facilities and “support the flow of credit to households and businesses.”

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors says parts of the plan are an overreach, while the agency should think twice about developing the proposal during the coronavirus pandemic.

Banking regulators restored the scandal-plagued bank's score three years after assigning it the lowest possible rating under the Community Reinvestment Act.