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WASHINGTON — The federal bank regulatory agencies today announced the annual adjustment to the asset-size thresholds used to define "small bank," "small savings association," "intermediate small bank," and "intermediate small savings association" under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations. The annual adjustments for banks are required by the 2005 CRA regulatory amendments and for savings associations by the OTS 2007 CRA regulatory amendments.

Annual adjustments to these asset-size thresholds are based on the year-to-year change in the average of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, not seasonally adjusted, for each twelve-month period ending in November, with rounding to the nearest million.

As a result of the 4.49% increase in the CPI index for the period ending in November 2008, the definitions of small and intermediate small institutions for CRA examinations will change as follows:

• "Small bank" or "small savings association" means an institution that, as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years, had assets of less than $1.109 billion.
• "Intermediate small bank" or "intermediate small savings association" means a small institution with assets of at least $277 million as of December 31 of both of the prior two calendar years, and less than $1.109 billion as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years.

These asset-size threshold adjustments are effective January 1, 2009. The agencies will publish the adjustments in the Federal Register. In addition, the agencies will post a list of the current and historical asset-size thresholds on the Web site of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (http://www.ffiec.gov/cra).

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