The federal bank regulatory agencies have amended their respective Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations primarily to conform to changes made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
Since 1995, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have conformed certain definitions in their respective CRA regulations to the scope of loans reported under Regulation C and believe that continuing to do so produces a less burdensome CRA performance evaluation process. In particular, the agencies have amended their CRA regulations to revise the definitions of “home mortgage loan” and “consumer loan,” as well as the public file content requirements. These revisions maintain consistency between the CRA regulations and amendments to Regulation C, which generally become effective on January 1, 2018.
In addition, the final rule contains technical corrections and removes obsolete references to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
The amendments to the CRA regulations also will become effective on January 1, 2018.