WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Tuesday announced their annual tweaks to asset-size thresholds for smaller financial institutions under the Community Reinvestment Act.
The changes, determined by a 1.6% inflation increase over the last 12 months ending in November, will affect banks with less than $1.305 billion in assets from the past two calendar years. The previous threshold was $1.284 billion.
Institutions falling below the new threshold as of Dec. 31 of either of the two previous calendar years will be considered "small" for the purposes of CRA exams.
Those below the new threshold but with assets of at least $326 million — up from $321 million in 2018 — will be considered an "intermediate small bank" or "intermediate small savings association."
The changes announced jointly by the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are unrelated to ongoing efforts to modernize the CRA. The current regulatory framework mandates the asset-size thresholds for CRA tests be adjusted annually for inflation.
The changes will go into effect Jan. 1, 2020.
