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Federal Register Publications

FDIC Federal Register Citations



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FDIC Federal Register Citations

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF THE ROCKIES

From: Pete Waller [mailto:PeteW@fnbrockies.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 8:10 PM
To: Comments
Cc: psmith@aba.com
Subject: FDIC CRA Proposal

We strongly support the FDIC's proposal to raise the threshold for the streamlined small bank CRA examination to $1 Billion without regard to the size of the bank's holding company. This would greatly relieve the regulatory burden imposed on small bank under the current regulation which are required to meet the standards imposed on the nation's largest $1 Trillion banks. Community banks would still be required to help meet the credit needs of their entire communities and would continue to be so evaluated by their regulator.

We support the addition of a community development criterion to the small bank examination for larger community banks, but we believe the new community development criterion should be applied only to banks greater than $500 Million up to $1 Billion. Community banks up to $500 Million now hold about the same percent of overall industry assets as community banks up to $250 Million did a decade ago when the revised CRA regulation were adopted, therefore this adjustment in the CRA threshold is appropriate. As bankers and FDIC examiners know, it has proven extremely difficult for small bank, especially those in rural areas such as our bank, to find appropriate CRA qualified investments in their communities. Many small banks have had to make regional or statewide investments that are extremely unlikely to ever benefit the banks' own communities. This result certainly was not intended by Congress when CRA was enacted.

We strongly oppose making the community development criterion a separate test from the bank's overall CRA evaluation. Such differentiation creates the impression that community development lending is different from the provision of credit to the entire community. The current small bank test considers the institution's overall lending in its community. A separate test would create an additional community development obligation and regulatory burden, eroding the intent of the streamlined exam.

We strongly support the FDIC's proposal to change the definition of "community development" from only focusing on low and moderate income area residents to including rural residents. This change will go a long way toward eliminating the current distortions in the regulations that result in a small rural bank being told to invest in regional affordable housing bonds for an urban area not in the bank's community.

We thank you for your consideration of our comments in advance.

Peter Y. Waller, CLBB
Chairman, President, & CEO
First National Bank of the Rockies
Grand Junction, CO 81505-1108
970-242-2255 fax 970-242-7722
pete@fnbrockies.com

Last Updated 09/28/2004 regs@fdic.gov

Last Updated: August 4, 2024