OCC and FDIC propose new CRA size tiers aimed at community banks

If you've lost track of which version of the CRA rules you're supposed to be planning for, you're not alone. On 12 August 2026 the OCC and the FDIC published another proposal (91 FR 52114). Its stated aim is "to reduce unnecessary burden, particularly for community banks."

The Fed didn't join this one. Comments were due by 13 October 2026, so the window closed yesterday.

What's proposed

The proposal would amend the OCC's rules at 12 CFR parts 5, 24, 25 and 35 and the FDIC's at parts 345 and 346. What most banks will look at first is the new size categories:

• a "small bank" would be "a bank with less than $1 billion in total assets";
• the current "intermediate small bank" category would be replaced "with a new 'intermediate bank' category";
• a "large bank" would be "a bank with assets of more than $10 billion."

Your size category picks your performance tests. That, in turn, sets how much data you collect and what your CRA exam looks like.

There's a smaller piece on CRA credit for grants and donations. It would "impose a 15 percent cap on the indirect costs that recipients could incur" for that support to count.

Who it reaches

National banks and savings associations (OCC) and state nonmember banks (FDIC). State member banks answer to the Fed, so this proposal doesn't touch them. Credit unions aren't subject to the CRA at all.

What it could mean

We think the size tiers matter more than anything else here. Put the large bank line above $10 billion and almost every community bank is out of the heaviest tests. If you're a $3 billion bank, though, your workload hangs on how the new intermediate category is written, and the summary leaves a lot of that open. We wouldn't redesign anything until the final text is out.

Timing is the other thing. CRA has reversed course more than once lately, and a proposal isn't a rule. If you rebuilt your data collection for an earlier version, it's tempting to rip it out now. Don't, in our opinion. Keep collecting what your current exam asks for, make a note of what the new tiers would let you drop, and wait for a final rule with a date on it.

The donation piece is small but practical. Say you give $20,000 a year to a local housing nonprofit. If the 15 percent cap survives, you'll want to know how that group books its overhead, or some of the money may not count the way you assumed. A quick call to the groups you fund now is cheap.