News & Events

Partner Keith Noreika was quoted in an IFLR article titled, “Otting's final act at OCC could make banking deserts a thing of the past,” about the recently revised Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which amended rules surrounding the way that small and medium-sized banks around the U.S. do business. The updates to the CRA focus on clarifying and expanding the activities that qualify for CRA credit; updating where activities count for CRA credit; creating a more consistent and objective method for evaluating CRA performance; and providing for more timely and transparent CRA-related data collection, recordkeeping and reporting.

Providing background on the CRA, Keith explained that “[a] lot of people thought the CRA itself was a little bit outdated because it was enacted in 1977 and was based around where the bank had branches. If you look back to 1977, there were originally concerns that banks would take deposits out of one neighbourhood, send them elsewhere to raise more money, and then not give credit to where the bank was actually located.” He further noted that, since then, the way banking is conducted in the U.S. and worldwide has evolved. "Banks are now everywhere because they’re on the internet. They don’t necessarily need to have a branch near customers anymore. Physical locations are becoming less and less important over time, especially as generations move on," Keith added.

To read the full article, please click here (subscription required).