12.3 CRA Assessment Areas and Public File Contents

Assessment Area (AA) Delineation Standards

An institution's assessment area (AA) represents the precise geographic community within which the supervisory agencies evaluate the bank's record of helping to meet local credit needs. The delineation of an assessment area is not an arbitrary marketing exercise; it is subject to strict statutory and regulatory boundaries.

assessment areas

The core regulatory benchmark for all depository institutions is the assessment areas codified under 12 CFR § 25.41(a) / § 228.41(a) / § 345.41(a):

• Mandatory Geographic Anchors: An institution's assessment area must include the geography surrounding its main office, its branches (full-service and brick-and-mortar limited-service facilities), and its deposit-taking remote service facilities (such as automated teller machines [ATMs] that accept consumer deposits).
• Non-Deposit-Taking Facilities: ATMs that only dispense cash, drive-up teller kiosks that do not accept deposits, and commercial Loan Production Offices (LPOs) do not mandate the delineation of an assessment areas. However, retail loans originated through LPOs within the bank's market are evaluated during supervisory reviews.
• Permissible Geographic Building Blocks: An assessment area must consist of one or more Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) or metropolitan divisions, or one or more contiguous political subdivisions, such as counties, cities, or towns.

Mandatory Boundary Delineation Rules

When delineating assessment areas, compliance officers must enforce three non-negotiable regulatory guardrails under 12 CFR § 25.41(e) / § 228.41(e) / § 345.41(e):

1. The Whole Geographies Rule: An assessment area must consist of whole geographies (census tracts). A financial institution is strictly prohibited from bisecting, carving up, or dividing a census tract. Every tract included must be incorporated in its entirety.
2. Illegal Discrimination Prohibition: The assessment area delineation cannot reflect illegal discrimination.
3. The Anti-Redlining Rule: An assessment area cannot arbitrarily exclude low- or moderate-income (LMI) geographies, taking into account the bank's size and financial condition.

Operative assessment-area framework

Use the legacy assessment-area rules. The stayed 2023 modernization rule’s retail lending assessment areas are not current obligations. A digital delivery channel does not automatically create a legacy assessment area everywhere it has borrowers; performance outside the assessment areas may still matter under the applicable test.

CRA Public File Requirements (12 CFR § 25.43)

The CRA Public File is a primary vehicle of regulatory transparency, enabling community groups, housing advocates, local civic leaders, and bank customers to review an institution's reinvestment record and submit public feedback.

Mandatory Public File Contents

Under 12 CFR § 25.43(a) and (b), the public file must contain the following specific records:

1. Written Public Comments: All written public comments received by the bank for the current calendar year and the prior two calendar years that specifically relate to the bank's performance in helping to meet community credit needs, together with any written responses provided by the bank (provided the comments do not contain personal defamatory statements or violate individual privacy).
2. CRA Performance Evaluation: A complete copy of the public section of the bank's most recent CRA Performance Evaluation prepared by its primary federal supervisory agency. The institution must update its public file within 30 business days of receiving the evaluation from the regulator.
3. Branch Facility Information:
   • A complete list of all bank branches, their street addresses, and their assigned census tract numbers;
   • A list of branches opened or closed during the current calendar year and the prior two calendar years, including street addresses and census tracts.
4. Retail Banking Services and Fees: A detailed description of retail banking services offered at the bank's branches, including normal operating hours, available transaction and deposit accounts, loan programs, and fee schedules, explicitly identifying any material differences in services or fees among individual branches.
5. Assessment Area Maps: Detailed maps for each assessment area showing its precise geographic boundaries, with census tract identification numbers either plotted directly on the map or detailed on an attached tract roster.
6. CRA Disclosure Statements: Copies of the bank's CRA Disclosure Statement prepared by the FFIEC for each of the prior two calendar years (applicable to large banks and mandatory CRA reporters).
7. HMDA Disclosure Statement Notice: If the bank is required to report mortgage data under Regulation C (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, 12 CFR Part 1003), a written notice stating that the bank's HMDA Disclosure Statement is available for public inspection on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) website.
8. Quarterly Loan-to-Deposit (LTD) Ratios: For small banks and intermediate small banks evaluated under the small bank lending test, the bank's loan-to-deposit ratio for each quarter of the prior calendar year.