The 25th Anniversary of the Community Reinvestment Act: Access to Capital in an Evolving Financial Services System

The United States Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) in 1977 to encourage depository institutions to meet the credit needs of lower-income communities. The Act responded to the contention that savings and loans associations and banks were ‘redlining’ or systematically denying credit to lower-income and minority neighborhoods. CRA advocates argued that by restricting credit access based on neighborhood characteristics as opposed to the creditworthiness of individual loan applicants, the actions of depositories were exacerbating urban decline…