The U.S. Community Reinvestment Act became law in 1977.
Congress passed the act to address concerns that banks were failing to serve borrowers and neighborhoods throughout the communities where they accepted deposits. It directs federal banking regulators to evaluate whether covered institutions are meeting the credit needs of their local areas.
The law was part of a broader period of fair-lending and housing-policy reforms. It did not require banks to make every requested loan, but it created an official framework for reviewing community lending performance.
The Community Reinvestment Act is sometimes confused with the Fair Housing Act or the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Those laws address related issues but have different purposes and dates. CRA evaluations can influence applications for bank mergers, acquisitions, and branch expansion.