Community Reinvestment Act

The Community Reinvestment Act was enacted in 1977 with a worthy goal of encouraging banks to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

To accomplish this objective, CRA requires banking regulators to assess banks’ record of helping to meet the credit needs of the communities in which they are chartered. Regulators must also consider an institution’s CRA record when evaluating certain corporate applications. In demonstration of that commitment, banks of all sizes provided more than $130 billion in capital to low- and moderate-income communities in the form of mortgages and small business loans and an additional $127 billion in community development loans in 2023 alone.

In October 2023, the federal banking agencies adopted major changes to the rules implementing CRA. The rules exceed the authority that Congress provided under the CRA statute. ABA and other trade associations challenged the new rule in court. The court found that we have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of the case and issued a preliminary injunction that delays and extends the rule’s compliance dates day-for-day while the injunction is in place. The court has not yet ruled on the merits of the case.