Building Stronger Communities: The Power of CRA and Public-Private Partnerships

Building Stronger Communities: The Power of CRA and Public-Private Partnerships

June 03, 2026

• Article
• Community and Economic Development
• Banking

Atlanta Fed vice president Karen Leone de Nie (at right) moderates a discussion at the National Community Investment Conference with (left to right) Kenan Fikri, senior fellow with the Economic Innovation Group; Scott Maxfield, managing director, Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Urban Investment Group; and Patrick Mullen, managing director, Arctaris Impact Investments.

In the landscape of community development, few tools have proven as enduring and had as great an impact as the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which encourages financial institutions to meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. At its core, CRA recognizes a fundamental truth: communities thrive when public, private, and nonprofit sectors unite around shared goals. This collaborative approach took center stage at the 2026 National Community Investment Conference (NCIC) in Phoenix, where leaders in the community development field gathered to explore the conference theme, "Innovations in Public-Private Partnership," and how those innovations can help address persistent and emerging community needs.

The foundation of effective community development

The CRA was designed to ensure banks serve all segments of the communities where they operate, including LMI neighborhoods. Federal Reserve governor Michael S. Barr emphasized in his keynote address that "the CRA was enacted to ensure that banks lend to households and businesses in lower-income communities, yet its vision of building stronger communities was always broader than that."

Federal Reserve governor Michael S. Barr delivered the conference's keynote address.

Governor Barr emphasized how CRA serves as a foundation for collaboration, noting that "community development is a team sport-it can't work without broad participation and becomes successively more effective the broader that participation gets." This principle has proven true across countless communities where CRA has catalyzed investment in housing, small businesses, and infrastructure that might otherwise have been overlooked.

CRA in action: Flexible approaches for diverse communities

CRA continues to adapt to evolving and complex community development opportunities, with compliance strategies varying based on bank size, business model, and local community needs. Sessions at NCIC showcased a wide array of effective CRA strategies, with attendees from the Federal Reserve's Sixth District making notable contributions to these discussions.

Matt Meynardie, chief compliance officer at Central State Bank (Calera, Alabama), shared CRA strategies for intermediate small banks during the "CRA in Practice" session, while Matt Maddux, senior vice president and community development officer at Raymond James Bank (Tampa), offered insights on specialized approaches for banks operating under a CRA strategic plan. These speakers provided examples that demonstrate CRA's flexibility in accommodating a range of operational models while meeting diverse community needs.

Representatives from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, including Dustin Sanders, Mary Hirt, Austin Cherry, and Grace Johnsen, provided valuable perspectives on how regulators evaluate CRA performance and community development activities. Their remarks helped clarify how institutions can align their initiatives with regulatory expectations while supporting genuine community impact.

Breaking down barriers to investment

During a discussion on investment dynamics in underserved markets, Reymundo Ocañas, executive vice president and director of community development banking at PNC, remarked that "capital isn't scarce, it's scared." The observation served as a powerful insight into why public-private partnerships are essential, a recurring theme throughout the entire conference. These collaborations create the confidence necessary for investment in historically underserved markets by reducing uncertainty, combining expertise, and leveraging complementary resources to support community development activities.

Creating housing opportunities: Conference sessions explored approaches to addressing affordable housing needs. A panel examining the 40-year impact of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit discussed how this public-private financing tool can mobilize private capital for public good to support the development of affordable housing. A panel featuring local government perspectives, including Mayor Tim Kelly of Chattanooga, who participated in the first round of the Southern Cities Economic Initiative that the Atlanta Fed cohosted, highlighted innovative municipal approaches to affordable housing through zoning practices and strategic partnerships that multiply the impact of limited public resources to expand housing options.

Chattanooga mayor Tim Kelly spoke as a participant in a panel discussion.

Empowering small business growth: Several panels examined small business lending conditions, particularly those in underserved communities where access to capital remains a challenge despite their critical role in creating jobs and building community wealth. Speakers discussed how CRA incentivizes financial institutions to develop tailored solutions for these entrepreneurs-often through collaborative models between banks, community development financial institutions, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations-that combines specialized financing products with technical assistance and capacity-building resources.

Catalyzing investment in economically distressed areas: A session led by Karen Leone de Nie, vice president and community affairs officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, focused on making Opportunity Zones work effectively for communities. Speakers discussed how this tax-incentive program can drive genuine community benefit when implemented with strong local partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and clear development goals, demonstrating how policy tools work best when embedded in a broader community development strategy. Banks can reinvest capital gains, make loans, or provide services in Opportunity Zones to be considered for CRA credit.

A Framework for Sustainable Community Investment

What makes CRA uniquely powerful is its ability to bring diverse stakeholders together around a shared purpose. When financial institutions, community organizations, and government agencies collaborate effectively, they create solutions that none could achieve independently. These collaborative approaches address complex challenges-such as housing affordability, small business access to credit, and neighborhood reinvestment-by building immediate opportunities and long-term community capacity.

As communities across America face evolving challenges, public-private partnerships that leverage CRA can provide a foundation for developing creative and inclusive solutions that build sustainable pathways for communities to shape their own futures.

The insights shared at the 2026 NCIC demonstrate that community development is fundamentally about people working together to create opportunity, build wealth, and improve quality of life in places that have historically been overlooked to make a stronger national economy. The power of public-private partnerships lies not just in financial leverage but in bringing diverse perspectives together to solve complex problems that matter deeply to communities.