Community Affairs Outreach

The Outreach team organizes outreach events throughout the United States. Often working with community affairs teams with other banking regulatory agencies, the Outreach team sponsors panels, roundtable discussions, listening sessions, and workshops about the role of banks in community development. Some of the events we organize are geared for bankers, some for community organizations, and some are a combination.

• Banker events are designed to help bankers better understand the CRA regulation and the type of banking activities that qualify for CRA consideration.
• Community events are designed to help community organizations gain basic knowledge on how bank regulation works and how they can form partnerships with banks to support local community development efforts.
• Combination events are designed to inform bankers about local community development needs so they can tailor their activities to meet those needs. These events also help facilitate partnerships between banks and community organizations.

Event participants are typically bank CRA officers, lenders, staff of community groups, and local community leaders.

Our CAOs are based in each of the OCC's regions.

The CAOs support the OCC's supervision teams by helping to conduct CRA examinations, collect information on community development needs in support of these exams, and offer consultations on compliance with the CRA to OCC-supervised banks.

CAOs support the OCC's mission by

• supporting supervision staff on the preparation and conduct of CRA examinations by reviewing OCC-supervised banks’ community development activities and conducting community interviews to assess local community development needs.
• providing training and technical assistance to OCC staff, bankers, and community members on all issues related to the Community Reinvestment Act and community development.
• conducting customized consultations with OCC-supervised banks to help them develop and implement an effective community development program.
• organizing and conducting, often in concert with other banking regulatory agencies, outreach events and listening sessions to exchange ideas about existing and innovative community development opportunities and to promote partnerships between banks and community stakeholders.

Other Community Outreach

Other outreach events that Community Affairs and the CAOs have supported include NeighborWorks Week and Financial Literacy Events.