[1]The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC [2]) this week released its list [3] of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA [4]) performance evaluations that were made public during the month of October 2014 for 36 financial institutions.
The financial institutions that received ratings from the OCC that became public during October were national banks, federal savings associations, and insured federal branches of foreign banks that have received ratings. The four possible ratings were outstanding, satisfactory, needs to improve, and substantial noncompliance, according to the OCC.
Six of the institutions evaluated received outstanding ratings: First National Bank Alaska, a large bank in Anchorage; Eastern National Bank, an intermediate small bank in Miami; BankChampaign, National Association, a small bank in Champaign, Illinois; North Shore Trust and Savings, a small bank in Waukegan, Illinois; Sunrise Banks, National Association, an intermediate small bank in St. Paul, Minnesota; and Texas Heritage National Bank, a small bank in Daingerfield, Texas.
Twenty-nine of the institutions evaluated received a satisfactory rating, and one bank – Certusbank, National Association, a large bank in Greenville, South Carolina, received a needs to improve rating. None of the 36 banks evaluated received a substantial noncompliance rating.
A searchable list [5] of all public CRA evaluations can be found on the OCC's web site. The CRA was first enacted by Congress in 1977 and revised in both 1995 and 2005. The purpose of the CRA is to "encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound operations," according to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board [6] web site.