OCC 2000-35
Subject: Large Bank Community Reinvestment Act Examinations
Description: Examiner Guidance
Date: December 29, 2000

TO:	Chief Executive Officers and Compliance Officers of 
All National Banks, Department and Division Heads, and 
All Examining Personnel

In 1998, the OCC initiated a project to improve Community 
Reinvestment Act (CRA) examinations at large banks.  Among 
the goals were to gain efficiencies and to ensure 
consistency in these examinations.  The end product is the 
attached “Large Bank CRA Examiner Guidance.” 

The guidance clarifies and supplements the FFIEC 
interagency procedures in the “Community Reinvestment Act 
Examination Procedures” booklet of the Comptroller’s 
Handbook.  Those procedures are referred to throughout this 
guidance as the large bank CRA examination procedures. 

The guidance, which will be used at all banks examined as 
large banks, implements the OCC’s approach to evaluating a 
large bank’s CRA activities over an “examination cycle.”  
This approach recognizes that a large bank CRA examination 
has distinct phases that must be scheduled at sufficient 
intervals to ensure that efficiencies are realized.  The 
guidance provides details about each phase of the cycle.  
In addition, the guidance provides supplemental examination 
procedures, sample request letters, sample CRA performance 
evaluation (PE) shells, and a set of standardized tables 
for presenting data in the PE. 

Key concepts are noted throughout the guidance by the words 
“Key Concept” in the left margin. “Key concepts” are any 
material changes in standard OCC policies, procedures, or 
examination approach as applied to large bank CRA 
examinations. 

Questions about CRA or this guidance may be directed to 
your supervisory office or to Community and Consumer Policy 
at (202) 874-4446.


____________________________
Ralph E. Sharpe
Deputy Comptroller
Community and Consumer Policy

Attachment