OCC Bulletin 2025-18 | July 16, 2025

Community Reinvestment Act: Interagency Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Rescind and Replace the 2023 CRA Final Rule

To

Chief Executive Officers of All National Banks, Federal Savings Associations, and Federal Branches and Agencies; Department and Division Heads; All Examining Personnel; and Other Interested Parties

Summary

On July 16, 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the agencies) issued a joint notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) to rescind the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) final rule issued on October 24, 2023, (2023 CRA Final Rule). The NPR would replace the 2023 CRA Final Rule with regulations substantively identical to those in effect on March 29, 2024—first adopted by the agencies in 1995 and reinstated by the OCC in 2021 (1995/2021 CRA regulation). The proposed rule is intended to restore certainty in the CRA regulatory framework for stakeholders and limit regulatory burden on financial institutions.

Comments on all aspects of the proposed rule are due 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

Note for Community Banks

This bulletin applies to all banks¹ subject to the CRA.

Highlights

The proposed rule would rescind the 2023 CRA Final Rule and replace it with the 1995/2021 CRA regulation, with conforming amendments to update the small bank asset-size threshold to the current 2025 threshold and other technical amendments.
The 2023 CRA Final Rule is currently subject to a preliminary injunction, issued on March 29, 2024, that stays its effective and implementation dates.²
The OCC continues to assess banks' CRA performance under the OCC’s 1995/2021 CRA regulation and is not applying any provisions of the 2023 CRA Final Rule.
The text of the OCC’s 1995/2021 CRA regulation can be found in: (i) the 2022, 2023, or 2024 bound versions of Title 12 of the Code of Federal Regulations; (ii) the historical version of the OCC's CRA regulation as of March 29, 2024, in the eCFR; or (iii) PDF form.

Background

The CRA is designed to encourage banks to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they are chartered consistent with the bank’s safe and sound operations, by requiring the agencies to examine banks’ records of meeting the credit needs of their entire community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The agencies must consider a bank’s CRA performance when evaluating certain applications.

The agencies issued the 2023 CRA Final Rule on October 24, 2023, to modernize their regulations implementing the CRA and published this rule in the Federal Register on February 1, 2024.³Several plaintiffs jointly filed suit on February 5, 2024, against the agencies challenging aspects of the 2023 CRA Final Rule.⁴ On March 29, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction that extended the 2023 CRA Final Rule’s effective date of April 1, 2024,along with all other implementation dates, day for day for each day the injunction remains in place. The agencies announced their intent on March 28, 2025, to rescind the 2023 CRA Final Rule and replace it with the 1995 CRA regulations.⁵

Further Information

Please contact Heidi Thomas, Senior Counsel; or Emily Boyes, Counsel, Chief Counsel’s Office, at (202) 649-5490; Onjil T. McEachin, Director for CRA and Fair Lending Policy, Office of the Chief National Bank Examiner, at (202) 649-5470; or Chandni G. Ohri, Director for Community Development, Office of Community and Industry Relations Office, at (202) 649-6420.

Stuart E. Feldstein
Acting Principal Deputy Chief Counsel