Community Reinvestment Act Updates
August 13, 2026
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) for CRA regulations was published in the Federal Register, with a deadline of Tuesday, October 13, for comments. The industry is currently measuring the possible impact of the proposed change in bank designations through a national survey, and those results, along with an evaluation of other changes in the proposed rule, will dictate our collective response.
We will be submitting a response to the NPR from the Housing Advisory Group and encourage you to do the same. We also ask our state association members to both consider a response from the association and share materials with your members so they may also submit comments to the NPR. We will provide you with data and sample narratives for your consideration well before the October 13th deadline for comments.
August 10, 2026
The FDIC and OCC are preparing to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) in the Federal Register that would change the designation of banks across the country.
The proposal would define “small bank” as a bank with less than $1 billion in total assets, reflecting an increase from the current small bank asset threshold of less than $412 million. Small banks would retain a lending test.
The proposal would replace the “intermediate small bank” category with a new “intermediate bank” category for banks with between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets, reflecting an increase from the current intermediate small bank threshold range of $412 million to $1.649 billion.
Intermediate banks would no longer have an investment test but would have a lending and Community Development test. The proposal also shifts the weighting of exams to allow lending to outweigh community development. Here is an excellent overview produced by our friends at NAAHL.
To get a better idea of the potential impact the proposed rule could have on investment in LIHTC, our colleagues at the AHTCC have developed a syndicator survey. All responses to the survey will remain private, and only the statistical analysis will be used as the industry prepares its responses to the proposal rule changes. If you would like to help by filling out the survey, please do so and return to dgasson@housingadvisorygroup.org.
Ultimately, our concerns center on fewer banks being required to participate in community development activities (LIHTC) and those that maintain the community development test choosing to instead increase their lending activity to satisfy their CRA requirements. As of the distribution of this update, the regulators have yet to file the NPR in the Federal Register. Once this occurs, the 60-day clock begins for public comment. We will provide you with data and materials to use for your comments.