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Banking

Introduction

What Is the Community Reinvestment Act?

Looking at Your Bank's CRA Performance—The Big Picture

Standards Used to Evaluate Your Bank's CRA Performance

Your Bank's Overall CRA Rating

What Your Bank's Public CRA File Must Show

Where You Can Find Your Bank's CRA Public File

How You Can Comment on Your Bank's CRA Performance

Your Bank's Overall CRA Rating

Examiners assign your bank an overall CRA rating based on factors included in the performance standards described above. The table shows how these specific factors contribute to a large bank's overall rating of outstanding, satisfactory, needs to improve, or the lowest rating—substantial noncompliance. A small bank receives one of these four ratings based on its performance under the standards for small banks.

Regardless of whether your bank is large or small, any evidence of discriminatory or illegal credit practices will have a negative effect on examiners' evaluation of your bank's performance and could lower its overall CRA rating.

Criteria for a Large Bank's CRA Rating^a
	CRA Ratings
Performance Criteria	Outstanding	Satisfactory^b	Needs to Improve	Substantial Noncompliance

Lending ^c

Responsiveness to credit and community development needs through lending practices, qualified investments, and services	excellent	good or adequate	poor	very poor
Percentage of loans made in the assessment area	substantial majority	high or adequate	small	very small
Distribution of loans among geographic areas, people of different income levels, and businesses of different sizes	excellent	good or adequate	poor	very poor
Quality of service for credit needs of extremely economically disadvantaged areas, low-income individuals, and small businesses	excellent	good or adequate	poor	very poor
Use of creative lending practices to address credit needs of low- or moderate-income people or neighborhoods	extensive	limited	little	no
Investment

Level of qualified community development investments and grants, particularly those not routinely provided by private investors	excellent	significant or adequate	poor	few
Use of innovative or complex qualified investments to support community development needs	extensive	extensive or occasional	rare	no
Service

Accessibility of services to all geographic areas and people of different income levels	readily accessible	reasonably accessible	unreasonably inaccessible^d	unreasonably inaccessible^d
Way in which openings and closings of branches have affected access to services, particularly for low- or moderate-income areas or individuals	have made more accessible	have not adversely affected	have adversely affected	have significantly adversely affected
Way in which services are provided throughout the assessment area for the convenience and needs of customers	services are tailored	services do not vary in a way that inconveniences	services vary in a way that inconveniences	services vary in a way that significantly inconveniences
^a The performance criteria for small banks are simpler. See "Standards for Small Banks." ^b Banks receive an underlying rating of "high satisfactory" or "low satisfactory," but the public record reflects only a single rating. ^c A bank's lending practices carry nearly twice as much weight as either its investment or service practices in the overall rating. ^d Particularly to low- or moderate-income areas or individuals.