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Research

Do CRA Ratings Reflect Differences in Performance: An Examination Using Federal Reserve Data

Key Findings Better outcomes on the retail lending test usually corresponded to higher ratings but the differences in performance were not as wide as expected Performance measures used to assess community loans and investments tended to indicate greater differences in bank performance across ratings categories This paper suggests the need for refining performance measures and […]

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Summary Fact Sheet on the OCC’s Final CRA Rule

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) final Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rule released on May 20 would lessen the public accountability of banks to their communities by enacting performance measures on CRA exams that would be complex and opaque while at the same time over-simplifying how to measure bank’s responsiveness to local needs.

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Mortgages and Older Adults after COVID-19

Key Findings 30% of mortgages in 2018 went to older adults. 67% of older adults who took out mortgages were refinancing their homes and 68% of those used the mortgage to access the equity in their homes. Older borrowers were Whiter than younger borrowers. As with younger borrowers, there are racial disparities in interest rates

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CFPB, FHFA Establish New Borrower Protection Program to Respond to COVID-19 Pandemic

This month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced the new Borrower Protection Program that streamlines consumer protection oversight of mortgage servicers through new data and information sharing between the program sponsors as they respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

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COVID-19 Hits Black and Hispanic Businesses Hardest of All

We already know that Black and Hispanic-owned small businesses are severely under- represented in communities, and the COVID-19 pandemic will likely damage these businesses especially hard. In a report that should surprise no one, researchers with the JPMorgan Chase Institute found that businesses located in Black and Hispanic communities are less likely to have the cash

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Proposed OCC and FDIC Geographic Analysis of Home Mortgage and Small Business Lending: Permission to Decrease Lending for the Largest Banks?

Executive Summary The proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) would radically reconfigure the testing criteria for banks.  A new testing regime would assess low- and moderate-income (LMI) home mortgage and small business lending with a demographic comparison

Proposed OCC and FDIC Geographic Analysis of Home Mortgage and Small Business Lending: Permission to Decrease Lending for the Largest Banks? Read More »

The CRA Evaluation Measures Would Allow Banks to Relax their Retail Lending to LMI Borrowers and Communities

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have proposed changes that would dramatically alter the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) examination of banks. Their proposal would create a metric, called the CRA evaluation measure, that would be the dominant measure for determining a bank’s rating. As long as a

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Racial Wealth Snapshot: African Americans and the Racial Wealth Divide

Download Infographic   Defining African American Though a term that has personal meanings and different connotations for many, “African American” is defined by the U.S. Census as “a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa,” and used synonymously with the simple term “Black.” These African roots can be found in an array

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Proposed Changes to CRA Puts Billions in Lending at Risk Each Year

Nearly $3 trillion in home and small business loans from banks went to low- and moderate-income (LMI) borrowers and communities over the last decade. Proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which requires banks to make loans in all of the communities where they take deposits, including poor ones, could significantly decrease this lending,

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NCRC Research Memo – Impact of Proposed Rule-Making on Major Credit-Card Lending Banks

NCRC analysis of OCC & FDIC proposal indicates credit card lenders may have reduced incentive to make community development investments. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) recently proposed a rulemaking (NPRM) that would radically change the manner in which retail lending, consumer lending and community development (CD) activities

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How to Consider Community Development Financing Outside of Assessment Areas by Designating Underserved Counties

(Download) Introduction Under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations, CRA examiners evaluate a bank’s record of responding to credit and banking needs in local communities in which it has branches. These areas are referred to as assessment areas (AAs). Over the years, industry stakeholders have sought to engage in community development financing in geographical areas

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CRA reform proposals would count sports stadiums as community development!

Under the proposed Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) regulatory changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), financing to improve stadiums located in low- and moderate-income (LMI) areas that are designated Opportunity Zones (OZ) would be credited to a bank, improving their CRA ratings. NCRC examined the

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For the Trump Administration: Affordable housing means middle-income housing for counties with 43 million people

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are proposing regulatory changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that make it easier for banks to get an “Outstanding” rating while underserving people and communities with low- and moderate-incomes (LMI) that it was meant to help. Under the

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