The Communitv Reinvestment Act (CRA) was enacted by Congress in 1977 and is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate.

Examiners conduct a separate review under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to determine how well a bank is meeting the credit needs of its entire community — in particular, the credit needs of low- and moderate-income individuals — without compromising the safety and soundness of the bank's operations. Examiners prepare confidential reports of their examination findings and issue them to bank management. They also prepare an evaluation document that discloses the bank's CRA rating and performance. Upon request, banks must make these documents available to the public.

CRA examinations are conducted by the federal agencies that are responsible for supervising depository institutions: the Federal Reserve System (FRS), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). Each of these sites includes the examination schedules and performance ratings for the institutions supervised by that regulator.