Community Reinvestment Act
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The Community Reinvestment Act (or CRA, Pub.L. 95-128, title VIII, 91 Stat. 1147, et seq.) is a United States federal law that requires banks and savings and loan associations to offer credit throughout their entire market area. (See full text of Act and current regulations.[1]) The act prohibits financial institutions from targeting only wealthier neighborhoods with their services, a practice known as "redlining." The purpose of the CRA is to ensure that under-served populations can obtain credit, including home ownership opportunities and commercial loans to small businesses. The Act was passed in 1977 and has been subjected to important regulatory revisions since then.
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[edit] Original Act
The CRA was passed by the 95th United States Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 as a result of national pressure for affordable housing.[2] In Congressional debate on the Act, critics charged that the law would "distort credit markets, create unnecessary regulatory burden, lead to unsound lending, and cause the governmental agencies charged with implementing the law to allocate credit." In respo...[3]
The CRA mandates that each banking institution be evaluated to determine if it has met the credit needs of its entire community. That record is taken into account when the federal government considers an instituti...Federal Reserve System to implement the CRA through ensuring banks and savings and loan...[2] The CRA is also enforced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") CRA Statute. Community groups only slowly organized to take advantage of the...[4][5]