OCC Bulletin 2024-9 | March 21, 2024

Community Reinvestment Act: Supplemental Final Rule

To

Chief Executive Officers of All National Banks, Federal Savings Associations, and Federal Branches and Agencies; Department and Division Heads; All Examining Personnel; and Other Interested Parties

Summary

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (collectively, the agencies) today released an interim final rule that extends to January 1, 2026, the applicability date of the facility-based assessment areas and public file provisions included in the agencies’ final rule revising their regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) (2023 CRA Final Rule). The agencies also released as a final rule technical amendments to the 2023 CRA Final Rule and related agency regulations. One of these technical amendments clarifies that banks do not need to make changes to their public notices until January 1, 2026. (The interim final rule and final rule are hereafter collectively referred to as the Supplemental Final Rule.)

The Supplemental Final Rule is effective on April 1, 2024. Comments on changes to the applicability date of the facility-based assessment areas and public file provisions must be received 45 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register.

Note for Community Banks

This bulletin applies to all banks¹ subject to the CRA.

Highlights

Section 25.16 of the 2023 CRA Final Rule provides that a bank must delineate one or more facility-based assessment areas within which the agencies evaluate the bank’s record of helping to meet the credit needs of its entire community. Section 25.43 of the 2023 CRA Final Rule requires a bank to maintain a public file that includes specific information related to the bank’s branches, services, and performance in helping to meet community credit needs. The Supplemental Final Rule extends the applicability date for the facility-based assessment areas and amendments to the public file provisions from April 1, 2024, to January 1, 2026, to align with the applicability date for the definitions, performance tests, and other geographic area provisions of the 2023 CRA Final Rule. The applicability date change for these provisions, which is intended to assist in implementing the 2023 CRA Final Rule, is effective April 1, 2024. Therefore, banks will not have to make changes to their assessment areas or their public files as a result of the 2023 CRA Final Rule until January 1, 2026. The agencies are requesting public comment on this applicability date change.

The Supplemental Final Rule also makes several technical amendments including:

aligning the applicability date of section 25.44 in the 2023 CRA Final Rule, which requires a bank to provide a public notice as set forth in appendix F, with the January 1, 2026, applicability date of appendix F to clarify that changes to a bank’s public notice are not needed until January 1, 2026;
adding a missing conforming amendment to the agency-specific amendments regarding the strategic plan provisions, section 25.27, of the 2023 CRA Final Rule; and
updating cross-references to the agencies’ CRA rules in their regulations implementing the CRA sunshine requirements of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act²and the OCC’s public welfare investment (12 CFR 24) and conversion from mutual to stock form (12 CFR 192) regulations.³

Background

On October 24, 2023, the agencies issued the 2023 CRA Final Rule to strengthen and modernize their regulations implementing the CRA. The CRA is designed to encourage insured depository institutions (including banks) to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they are chartered, consistent with the institution’s safe and sound operations, by requiring the agencies to examine an institution’s records of meeting the credit needs of its entire community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The agencies must issue written public evaluations of an institution’s CRA performance and take this performance into account when evaluating certain applications. The 2023 CRA Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on February 1, 2024.⁴

Further Information

Please contact Heidi Thomas, Senior Counsel, Chief Counsel’s Office, at (202) 649-5490, or Vonda Eanes, Director for CRA and Fair Lending Policy, Bank Supervision Policy, at (202) 649-5470.

Additional information about the final rule is available at Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

Benjamin W. McDonough
Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel