State Community Reinvestment Acts: Summary of state laws
Many states have adopted Community Reinvestment Acts (CRAs) similar in purpose and structure to the federal Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. These state laws were developed following the passage of the federal CRA but contain differences that reflect the unique reinvestment priorities of individual states. State CRAs have also developed during, and often in response to, a substantial increase in the nonbank mortgage company share of the mortgage market.
This report focuses on state CRA laws that provide an affirmative obligation for financial institutions to meet the lending, services, and/or investment needs of their communities. The states included are Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It summarizes the key factors of each of these laws, organizes them into ten issue groups, and identifies five findings that inform how states could consider establishing reinvestment obligations.
This review suggests that states play an active and ongoing role in promoting reinvestment by a wide range of institutions and that continued review is necessary to understand these developments. It also suggests that data collected by federal agencies are often used for state CRA compliance and other oversight purposes.
The CFPB conducted this research to identify existing areas of collaboration between state and federal supervisory agencies, compare performance evaluation factors among certain state CRAs, inform further development and publication of market information regularly used as part of state performance evaluations, and identify where federal consumer financial protection laws and other protections are incorporated into state CRA evaluations.