Federal bank regulatory agencies today jointly issued a final rule to strengthen and modernize regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to better achieve the purposes of the law. The CRA is a landmark law enacted nearly 50 years ago to encourage banks to help meet the credit needs of their entire communities, especially in low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods, in a safe and sound manner. Building on feedback from commenters on the proposed rule and research, the final rule updates the CRA regulations to achieve the following key goals: Encourage banks to expand access to credit, ... (full story)