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.

It is no secret that commercial real estate (CRE) has bubbled up to the top of most lists of key risks facing the banking industry. Coming in September, Ask the Regulators will conduct a webinar on the latest guidance SR Letter 23-5: Prudent Commercial Real Estate Loan Accommodations and Workouts.

Learn more about implementation of Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act amending the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), which requires the collection and reporting of credit application data for small businesses lending, including women- and minority-owned businesses, and also about regulatory changes to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act thresholds.

Growth in the crypto-asset industry and recent events underscore the need for banks to have the appropriate systems, effective internal controls and risk management processes in place.

Third quarter 2022 loan growth was strong as Fifth District banks outpaced the nation in all loan categories even as rates continued to increase.

In 2020, some prosecutors described suspicious activity related to illicit use of pandemic relief as one of the largest frauds in U.S. history.

The Federal Reserve launched a new resource designed to help lenders understand the Metropolitan Statistical Area boundaries and demographics due to the 2020 Decennial Census update.

The Richmond Fed introduced its Cyber Simulation Lab for managing cyber-attacks during its 2022 Community and Regional Bankers Forum.

Learn more about the tools available to assist financial institutions in accounting for Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL).

Prompt notification of cyber incidents helps the Federal Reserve make timely decisions related to the safety and soundness of supervised firms and the financial system.

The end of 2021 brought with it the expiration of several important COVID relief programs, including changes to the CARES Act Section 4013, Community Bank Leverage Ratio and the FDIC’s interim final rule.

The Federal Reserve System has developed an automated process for member banks’ reporting of non-merger-related adjustments to their subscriptions to Reserve Bank capital stock by utilizing filed Call Reports. 

The SCALE tool uses publicly available data from Schedule RI-C of the quarterly call report to derive the initial proxy for expected lifetime loss rates. The data is available on the CECL Resource Center on the SCALE tab in the resources section or at RI-C - CECL Resource Center.

As the pandemic lingers, our supervisory posture remains virtual—and staying flexible and nimble are important now and will remain so into the future. Our examination teams will focus on three key areas as we resume exams: loan risk ratings, capital preservation, and liquidity resilience. 

Fed staff have created the simple, spreadsheet-based SCALE tool to help community banks implement the CECL accounting standard. Read on to see if it may be able to aid your institution.

Is your board of directors aware of the number of loan policy exceptions in your bank’s loan portfolio and what types of exceptions are being made? Banks with effective credit risk practices will have the ability to answer these questions—read the three-step process that will ensure you’re one of them.