Take Action by Friday:
Submit Comments Urging Federal Regulators to Strengthen Community Reinvestment Act Rulemaking
The deadline for submitting comments to the federal banking regulators is THIS FRIDAY, August 5, 2022
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve Board and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have issued a joint notice of proposed rulemaking to update the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The CRA requires banks to serve communities equitably and was enacted to address bank redlining but it has not lived up to its initial promise as it was implemented without a racial equity lens.
The proposed rule includes many needed updates to modernize the CRA and encourages banks to provide grants and loans to and investments in CDFIs regardless of geography – a critical change that will increase investment in historically disinvested areas. The proposed rule, however, falls far short in other key areas, including in its approach to racial equity and its lack of support for MDI credit unions.
We strongly encourage Inclusiv members to submit comments calling on the regulators to implement an improved version of the rule that has a meaningful focus on racial equity, encourages investment in community development credit unions, includes strong climate resiliency provisions, and incentivizes banks to provide support for credit unions’ work on affordable homeownership. The comment letter template below offers opportunities to customize the letter based on your credit union’s experiences and perspective. Please review and update all sections highlighted in yellow, and feel free to add additional content or remove sections as desired.
You may submit your comment letter via regulations.gov by using the “Comment” button at the top left of the screen of Docket OCC-2022-0002-0001, and email submission instructions for each regulator are available in the full text of the proposed rule. Comments must be submitted by August 5th, 2022.
If you have any questions about the proposed rule or would like support with or feedback on your letter, please contact Alexis Iwanisziw at aiwanisziw@inclusiv.org.