In the December 29, 2015 issue of the Federal Register 80 FR 81162, click here), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) published a joint final rule amending their respective Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations to adjust the asset-size thresholds used to define “small bank,” “small savings association,” “intermediate small bank,” and “intermediate small savings association,” effective January 1, 2016. As required by the CRA regulations, the adjustment to the threshold amount is based on the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). During the adjustment period ending November 2015, the CPI-W decreased by 0.42% and, as a result, the OCC, FRB and FDIC decreased their respective CRA asset-size thresholds for small and intermediate banks and savings associations, as set out below: Effective January 1, 2016, the OCC, the FRB and the FDIC have revised their CRA regulations in 12 CFR §§25.12(u)(1), 195.12(u)(1), 228.12(u)(1), and 345.12(u)(1), respectively, to decrease the asset-size thresholds used to define “small bank,” “intermediate small bank,” “small savings association,” and “intermediate small savings association.” Beginning January 1, 2016, banks and savings associations that, as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years, had assets of less than $1.216 billion (a decrease from $1.221 billion) are small banks or small savings associations. Small banks and small savings associations with assets of at least $304 million (a decrease from $305 million) as of December 31 of both of the prior two calendar years and less than $1.216 billion (a decrease from $1.221 billion) as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years are intermediate small banks or intermediate small savings associations. The current and historical asset-size thresholds also are published on the website of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council at http://www.ffiec.gov/cra/. The joint final rule also amends the above agencies’ respective Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations to make technical edits to remove obsolete references to the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and update cross-references to regulations implementing certain Federal consumer financial laws.
