Proposed Rule Rolls Back Community Reinvestment Act Obligations

Of great concern to LeadingAge and others interested in expanding and preserving the nation's supply of affordable housing, the Department of Treasury, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a joint rulemaking, published on August 12, 2026, proposing to amend the regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that could weaken investment in affordable housing and community development.

The CRA, enacted in 1977, requires federal banking regulators to encourage financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they do business, including in low and moderate-income neighborhoods. In particular, a financial institution's record of meeting the credit needs of its entire community is taken into account by federal regulators when evaluating the financial institution's application for a deposit facility.

Among the changes that the rule proposes for evaluating whether a financial institution is meeting its CRA requirements are: restricting the large bank service test to a bank's "credit services," or lending, rather than deposit services; imposing a 15% cap on indirect costs that recipients of community development grants at large banks may incur; recalibrating asset thresholds for small, intermediate, and large banks; and tailoring retail lending tests to focus only on a bank's major product line(s). In particular, the recalibration of asset thresholds for the three categories of banks would likely reduce the number of banks incentivized to make loans and investments in affordable housing and community development, such as investing in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.

LeadingAge is concerned that this rule would further limit opportunities for affordable housing for older adults, and we will continue to work with our housing partners to coordinate a response in opposition to this rule. The comment period closes on October 13, 2026.