Department of the Treasury August 2, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

An open meeting of the Wage & Investment Reducing Taxpayer Burden (Notices) Issue Committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted (via teleconference). The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comments, ideas and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

The OCC, Board, and FDIC (collectively, ``federal banking agencies'' or ``the agencies'') are issuing this joint final rule that revises certain provisions of our rules implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The agencies are taking this action after carefully considering public comments received in response to the joint notice of proposed rulemaking published on March 11, 2005 (the ``March proposal''). The joint final rule addresses regulatory burden imposed on small banks with an asset size between $250 million and $1 billion by exempting them from CRA loan data collection and reporting obligations. It also exempts such banks from the large bank lending, investment, and service tests, and makes them eligible for evaluation under the small bank lending test and a flexible new community development test. Holding company affiliation is no longer a factor in determining which CRA evaluation standards apply to a bank. In addition, the joint final rule revises the term ``community development'' to include activities to revitalize and stabilize distressed or underserved rural areas and designated disaster areas. Finally, it adopts without change the amendments to the regulations to address the impact on a bank's CRA rating of evidence of discrimination or other credit practices that violate an applicable law, rule, or regulation.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. OTS is soliciting public comments on the proposal.