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Community Reinvestment Act

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was enacted in 1977 to encourage financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of their communities, including low and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound lending practices.

Description of the CRA and OTS' CRA Responsibilities

Wholesale and Limited Purpose Designations - Listing of institutions designated for evaluation as wholesale or limited purpose institutions under the Community Development test. - 1 Page (03/27/2002) 25 KB

Under the Community Reinvestment Act, an institution may apply to its primary federal regulator to be designated a limited purpose or a wholesale institution. Such institutions are evaluated for performance under standards found at 12 CFR 563e, 12(n) and (v), and 563e.25.

The regulation offers the following definitions:

• Limited purpose institution means an institution that offers only a narrow product line (such as credit card or motor vehicle loans) to a regional or broader market and for which a designation as a limited purpose institution is in effect.
• Wholesale institution means an institution that is not in the business of extending home mortgage, small business, small farm, or consumer loans to retail customers, and for which a designation as a wholesale institution is in effect.

CRA Database - The OTS CRA search database includes a complete list of publicly released CRA ratings, along with links to recent public evaluation documents available for savings associations regulated by the OTS. This database can also be used to access large banks' component ratings under the Lending, Investment and Service test. To access component ratings you must first select large banks as part of your search criteria. Once the findings of the search are obtained you must then select the CSV function. The CSV function will produce a spreadsheet file containing the component test ratings. The Lending, Investment and Service test ratings are O=Outstanding, H=High Satisfactory, L=Low Satisfactory, N=Need to Improve and S=Substantial Noncompliance.

CRA Examination Schedule

OTS 04-38, OTS Lists 35 CRA Exams Scheduled for Fourth Quarter 2004 (09/10/2004) 3 KB

OTS 04-18, OTS Lists 113 CRA Exams Scheduled for Third Quarter 2004 (06/08/2004) 3 KB

OTS 04-06, OTS Lists 66 CRA Exams Scheduled for Second Quarter 2004 (03/08/2004) 3 KB

OTS 03-39, OTS Lists 81 CRA Exams Scheduled for First Quarter 2004 (12/03/2003) 3 KB

CRA Monthly Ratings Release

CRA Ratings for September 2004, CRA Performance Evaluations - (September 2004) (10/06/2004) 20 KB

CRA Ratings for August 2004, CRA performance Evaluations - (August 2004) (09/07/2004) 15 KB

CRA Ratings for July 2004, CRA Performance Evaluations - (July 2004) (08/16/2004) 25 KB

CRA Ratings for June 2004, CRA Performance Evaluations - (June 2004) (07/20/2004) 57 KB

CRA Ratings for May 2004, CRA Performance Evaluations - (May 2004) (06/24/2004) 38 KB

CRA Ratings for April 2004, CRA Performance Evaluations - (April 2004) (06/24/2004) 41 KB

CRA Ratings for March 2004, CRA Performance Evaluations - (March 2004) (06/24/2004) 37 KB

CRA Ratings for February 2004, CRA Performance Evaluations - (February 2004) (03/04/2004) 78 KB

CRA Ratings for January 2004, CRA Performance Evaluations - (January 2004) (02/17/2004) 46 KB

CRA Ratings for December 2003, CRA Performance Evaluations - (December 2003) (02/17/2004) 42 KB

CRA Ratings for November 2003, CRA Performance Evaluations - (November 2003) (12/12/2003) 35 KB

CRA Ratings for October 2003, CRA Performance Evaluations - (October 2003) (11/13/2003) 33 KB

CRA Speeches and Testimony

87090	TS-090, "Beyond CRA," Remarks by Ellen Seidman to the Greenlining Institute, San Francisco, CA, October 2, 2001 (10/03/2001) 34 KB
87075	OTS-075, Puzzling Through: Approaching Alternative Credit Responsibly. Remarks by Ellen Seidman before the Interagency Conference on CRA, San Francisco, CA, April 17, 2000 (04/18/2000) 21 KB
87066	TS-066, Challenges to Measuring CRA Performance, Remarks by Ellen Seidman at the Fair Lending and CRA Colloquium, Newport, Rhode Island, 6/17/99 (06/17/1999) 31 KB
87038	TS-038, Remarks by Ellen Seidman Director, Office of Thrift Supervision, at the Consumer Bankers' Association Annual Conference Arlington, Virginia April 26, 1999 (04/26/1999) 24 KB
87020	TS-020, Seidman's Statement at the Forum on Community Reinvestment and Access to Credit: California's Challenge (01/12/1998) 1,122 KB
87019	TS-019, Seidman Remarks Before the National Community Reinvestment Coalition on Communities: Commitment, Reinvestment, and Development (12/05/1997) 79 KB

CRA - Other Documents

77402	OTS 04-02, Bank and Thrift Agencies Publish Proposed Rulemaking Regarding the Community Reinvestment Act (02/06/2004) 6 KB
48865	Wholesale and Limited Purpose Designations, Listing of institutions designated for evaluation as wholesale or limited purpose institutions under the Community Development test. (03/27/2002) 25 KB
73127	Community Reinvestment (No. 2001-49) - Joint Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [Comments]. [To view Joint Proposed Rule, select 73213.; To view Final Rule select 73230.] (07/19/2001) 54 KB
48861	FFIEC Community Reinvestment Act: Interagency Questions and Answers, (07/12/2001) 179 KB
73125	Community Reinvestment Act; Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Community Reinvestment - FFIEC Notice and Request for Comment (06/19/2001) 146 KB
87020	TS-020, Seidman's Statement at the Forum on Community Reinvestment and Access to Credit: California's Challenge (01/12/1998) 1,122 KB
87019	TS-019, Seidman Remarks Before the National Community Reinvestment Coalition on Communities: Commitment, Reinvestment, and Development (12/05/1997) 79 KB
25069	CEO Ltr 69, Welfare to Work Movement and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) (06/06/1997) 158 KB
66032	DO 96-32, Community Reinvestment Act Regulations-Technical Correction (04/05/1996) 314 KB
56604	LO 96-04, Neighborhood Housing Services of America ("NHSA") Securities (03/28/1996) 1,566 KB
25051	CEO Ltr 51, Strategic Plan and Wholesale/Limited Purpose Requests Under CRA (12/29/1995) 571 KB
78040	FFIEC, CRA Examination Procedures, Introduction (11/13/1995) 847 KB
78041	FFIEC, CRA Examination Procedures, Small Institution - Final Performance Evaluation (11/13/1995) 1,001 KB
78042	FFIEC, CRA Examination Procedures, Large Institution - Final Performance Evaluation (11/13/1995) 2,313 KB
78043	FFIEC, CRA Evaluation Procedures, Wholesale and Limited Purpose Institution Performance (11/13/1995) 724 KB
78044	FFIEC, CRA Performance Evaluation, Strategic Plan (11/13/1995) 408 KB
25039	CEO Ltr 39, CRA Final Rule (05/16/1995) 393 KB
25031	CEO Ltr 31, Community Reinvestment Act Regulations (10/17/1994) 376 KB
86096	TR-96, Community Reinvestment Act Regulations (02/08/1994) 40 KB
86052	TR-52, FFIEC Revised CRA Procedures (08/03/1992) 21 KB
84033	TB 47-2, Interagency Policy Statement on the Analysis of Geographic Distribution of Lending for CRA (01/10/1992) 22 KB
84003	TB 8- 1, Disclosure of Compliance, CRA, and Trust Ratings (03/30/1989) 18 KB

CRA - FFIEC Information

FFIEC CRA Interagency Ratings - This search engine will enable you to find the latest CRA ratings of financial institutions regulated by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and/or the Office of Thrift Supervision. By selecting the criteria of the financial institution you wish to obtain, you can get the latest CRA rating. (Link to an External Website) (01/11/2002)