On May 20, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) acted alone in issuing a structurally flawed final rule on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that weakens the CRA and will harm low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities and communities of color.
Rather than postpone rulemaking to focus on the devastating economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 health pandemic, the OCC issued the rule a mere six weeks after the closing of the comment period on its proposed rule despite broad requests for delay from community groups, civil rights and consumer organizations, and industry. The OCC received over 7,400 comments on the rule and acknowledged that most of the comments disagreed with the proposal’s approach, but decided to side with the minority of comments in support of the proposed rule. Unfortunately, the OCC’s rule will harm the communities most adversely affected by the current crisis, including many families that were hardest hit by the Great Recession and have yet to recover.