Examining the history of Community Development Credit Unions shows the evolving role they played in helping to expand banking access to underserved individuals.

Alaina Barca and Surekha Carpenter examine the decline in the number of bank branches in certain communities and the economic effects of that trend. They also share data from the Banking Deserts Dashboard developed for the Fed Communities website. Barca is a community development research analyst at the Philadelphia Fed and Carpenter is a research analyst at the Richmond Fed.

More than 40 bankers from institutions across the Fifth Federal Reserve District recently convened for the Richmond Fed's Community Bank Credit Forum.

Richmond Fed leaders and Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman heard business and community leaders' perspectives on the state of the local economy.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (FRBR) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are sponsoring a virtual workshop on the Community Reinvestment Act.

Designed for community-based organizations, this workshop will review the regulation and discuss ways through which community organizations can collaborate more effectively with banks. Topics discussed include an overview of the CRA, understanding the impact of bank performance context, the types of bank activities that qualify for CRA consideration and strategies to develop successful partnerships with banks.