1- The retail lending and community development opportunities in the different assessment areas, particularly areas where the need for credit and community development activities is significant;

a – The level of the institution’s activity in the different assessment areas, including in low- and moderate-income areas, designated disaster areas, or distressed or underserved non-metropolitan middle-income geographies designated by the Agencies^[1] based on (a) rates of poverty, unemployment, and population loss or (b) population size, density, and dispersion;^[2]

b – The number of other institutions in the different assessment areas and the importance of the institution under examination in serving the different areas, particularly any areas with relatively few other providers of financial services;

c – The existence of apparent anomalies in the reported data for any particular assessment area(s);

d – The length of time since the assessment area(s) was last examined using a full scope review;

e – The institution’s prior CRA performance in different assessment areas;

f – Examiners’ knowledge of the same or similar assessment areas; and

g – Comments from the public regarding the institution’s CRA performance.

2 – Select one or more assessment areas in each state, and one or more assessment areas in any multi-state MSA, for examination using these procedures. This is required because for interstate institutions, a rating must be assigned for each state where the institution has a branch and for each multi-state MSA/MD where the institution has branches in tow or more states that comprise that MSA/MD.

^[1]  The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision.

^[2] A list of distressed or undeserved non-metropolitan middle-income geographies will be made available on the FFIEC web site at www.ffiec.gov.

 

SOURCE:  Intermediate Small Institution CRA Examination Procedures | OCC, FRB, FDIC, and OTS | July 2007