Community Reinvestment Act Public Law 95-128 (see Title VIII)

In 1999, the CRA was revised by the Gramm Leach Bliley Act (P.L. 106-102). This Act changes the frequency of examinations for smaller banks from every two years to every four to five years. In addition, it requires that all banks in a financial holding company have satisfactory CRA ratings before the financial holding company can be certified and engage in the new financial activities. Further, this new law states that community groups must disclose any agreements with banks that involve payments from a bank to a community group exceeding $10,000, or loans totaling more than $50,000.

Over the past year, significant changes have been proposed to the Community Reinvestmnet Act. The Office of Thrift Supervision has decided to classify all banks with assets under $1 billion as "small banks" and therefore subject to a streamlined, less frequent CRA exam(previously, the threshold was $250 million or less in assets to be considered "small"). The other agencies charged with carrying out the CRA--the Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC--have taken a different tack by proposing a less radical CRA simplification for banks with assets up to $1 billion that is currently that is taking public comment into account. This proposal would drop the public data disclosure requirement and would require a simplified lending test and new community development test for banks with assets between $250 million and $1 billion.