US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Publishes Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with Respect to Community Reinvestment Act Modernization

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking with respect to the modernization of the Community Reinvestment Act.  The notice highlights that a revised CRA framework will allow financial institutions to more effectively serve the needs of the communities in which they operate by focusing CRA activities to where they are needed most, providing greater clarity with respect to CRA-qualifying activities and evaluating CRA activities more consistently. With respect to the latter, the notice provides that a modernized CRA framework will allow for more timely evaluation of the CRA activities of financial institutions, result in greater transparency and consistent interpretation of the CRA and reduce the regulatory burden of financial institutions.  The specific requests for comment are organized into two subcategories—evaluation of the existing CRA framework and the modernized CRA framework. With respect to the existing CRA framework, the notice requests comments regarding whether the current framework is easy to understand, consistently applied and transparent; whether the current framework supports the goals of the CRA; and which aspects of the current framework are successful or should be retained.  With respect to the modernized CRA framework, the notice requests comments regarding the revision of the current performance evaluation method, including whether revised CRA performance evaluations should be metric-based; re-defining of communities and assessment areas to reflect activities that occur outside of an institution’s physical location and to account for institutions with no physical locations or those with activities that extend significantly beyond the institutions’ physical locations; expanding and providing greater clarity with respect to the types and categories of activities that should receive CRA consideration; and facilitating transparency and consistency in recordkeeping, reporting and examination requirements.  Comments are due no later than 75 days after the proposal’s publication in the Federal Register.

View full text of the notice.