Under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), three distinct federal regulatory agencies: The Federal Reserve Board (FRB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC) conduct periodic reviews of the various banks over which they have responsibilities to hold them accountable for meeting the credit needs of their communities. These formal performance evaluations (PEs) conducted by the three regulators vary a bit in style and structure but, fundamentally, banks are assessed within their unique performance contexts to evaluate the lending, investment and service they offer to their entire communities, including low- and moderate-income (LMI) individuals and neighborhoods within their respective CRA assessment areas. The possible ratings are outstanding, satisfactory, needs to improve and substantial noncompliance.
Banks’ PEs are made publicly available, and you can mine the regulators’ sites to find out how well a particular bank you are interested in has been doing to comply with the CRA.
