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. The rules implementing CRA, however, have not kept pace with the times or with new technologies and are actually holding back investment in the very communities the law is intended to serve. This has prompted a regulatory review of the best way to modernize CRA.

ABA strongly supports modernizing CRA and has urged regulators to: align CRA resources with actual community needs; reflect changes in technology, consumer preferences and the business of banking; increase certainty and transparency regarding regulatory interpretations and standards; improve the supervisory process; and apply CRA-like requirements to other financial firms, including credit unions.