CRA

After years of discussion among regulators, the Federal Reserve Board has approved changes to its CRA rules that will base compliance exams on where lending occurs rather than branch locations. The updates — set to take effect in January 2026 — also emphasize lending in lower-income areas as well as community development loans and investments.

Banking regulators have been debating how to reform the implementing regulations for the Community Reinvestment Act across two presidential administrations. But despite banks' urging to slow down, regulators are poised to finish the job in early fall.

The American Bankers Association and Bank Policy Institute Tuesday urged bank regulators to delay the finalization of its Community Reinvestment Act rule, saying regulators have not calibrated the rule to account for upcoming capital changes or considered whether courts will find the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure constitutional.

F.N.B. Corp, the holding company for First National Bank, is making its second investment in the $13 million-asset Hill District Federal Credit Union.

Advocacy groups want the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to downgrade the Community Reinvestment Act rating of FinWise Bank, which partners with nonbanks to offer high-cost consumer loans. The FDIC downgraded the rating of a second Utah-based bank following a similar campaign by consumer organizations.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has lowered the Utah bank's CRA score to "needs to improve," putting other banks that work with high-rate lenders on notice. 

The $7.1 billion-asset bank has established a partnership with the nonprofit HoneyBee that harks to its early days serving underbanked Korean business owners in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.

The industry needs a leader to be the face of a lawsuit challenging the proposal. The author nominates JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon.

The report, which examined trends between 2010 and 2021, found that the country's biggest banks only opened 638 branches in low-to-moderate-income communities made up primarily of people of color. That accounts for just 15% of their total branch openings.

The Federal Reserve, state supervisors and other bank regulators said they would not penalize institutions that work with impacted borrowers following devastating storms in Florida and Puerto Rico.

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey criticized the degree of "opacity" surrounding some community benefit agreements, or written deals between banks and community groups ahead of a merger that often involve billions of dollars of commitments.

Trade groups submitted a wide range of complaints to regulators throughout the Community Reinvestment Act's comment period, including concerns about the revamp's timeline and how the proposal would evaluate online banking activity.

Bank and financial services supervisors have an affirmative duty to address the deep economic divide facing minorities in the U.S.

The Community Reinvestment Act has failed to reduce anti-Black racial discrimination in financial services, to lower poverty or to lessen environmental destruction.

The central bank has a long history of diluting the effectiveness of the Community Reinvestment Act.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency made good on a promise to rescind Community Reinvestment Act reforms finalized by ex-Comptroller Joseph Otting as part of talks with other regulators on an interagency overhaul of the law.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s pledge to rescind Trump-era Community Reinvestment Act reforms and work with other regulators suggests that an interagency agreement is within reach. But outstanding issues remain, particularly around the treatment of online banking activities.

Community development financial institutions could do more lending in low-income neighborhoods if policymakers relaxed accounting rules, increased government support and encouraged more investment from hedge funds and other nonbank lenders.

While federal regulators attempt to overhaul the Community Reinvestment Act for banks, Congress has shown little interest in applying it to other lenders. But recent moves in Illinois and New York have given some stakeholders hope that state lawmakers will pick up the slack.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency confirmed it will rescind an unpopular rule overhauling the Community Reinvestment Act and joined other agencies in calling for a renewed interagency effort.