IBA Compliance Connection

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For the Illinois Community Reinvestment Act (Illinois CRA) notice: (1) Can we use a title when listing the name of the “official at bank,” such as “CRA officer,” (2) what title should we use for the “responsible official” at the Federal Reserve Bank from whom consumers may request certain CRA information, and (3) as an FDIC-regulated Illinois bank, should we also provide information for the FDIC?

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The information in your question pertains to the federal CRA notice and is not currently required for the Illinois CRA notice. You should be posting the version of the Illinois CRA notice required under the statutory text of the Illinois CRA or a version using the alternative language that the IDFPR published in an Illinois CRA Supervisory Statement, which is linked in the resources below. We do not recommend using the Illinois CRA notice from the IDFPR’s proposed Illinois CRA administrative rules until the IDFPR finalizes those rules.

For your federal CRA notice, we recommend using the name of your CRA officer in the notice. Appendix B to the FDIC’s CRA Regulations includes a sample CRA notice notifying the public that they may send written comments about your bank’s “performance in helping to meet community credit needs to (name and address of official at bank) and FDIC Regional Director.” Since the sample notice provides that a name (rather than a title) should be inserted, we recommend listing the name of your current CRA officer in the notice.

We are aware that many banks include a bank official’s title on their CRA notices rather than an individual’s name, so we reached out to an attorney at the FDIC to find out if this practice is acceptable. Although the FDIC attorney is aware that listing a title in lieu of a name is a common practice, they noted that there has not been an express pronouncement from the FDIC condoning this practice, and as a result, banks should include the name of the official at the bank rather than their title.    

The FDIC’s sample CRA notice also provides that members of the public may request certain information regarding bank holding companies from “the (title of responsible official)” at the Federal Reserve Bank. The federal banking agencies’ Interagency Guidance regarding the CRA public lobby notice directs FDIC-supervised institutions to list the “Officer in Charge of Supervision” as the responsible official for Federal Reserve Banks. We believe this title should be used in your CRA notice, with the address for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (currently 230 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60604).

Additionally, we believe you should include information for the FDIC on your CRA notices. The FDIC’s sample CRA notice states that customers may request certain information from “the Regional Director, FDIC (address).” The current address of the FDIC’s Chicago Regional Office is 300 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60606-344.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

  • IDFPR, Illinois Community Reinvestment Act Supervisory Statement (May 5, 2021) (“[T]he Division of Banking (DOB) has yet to issue evaluations for DOB covered financial institutions. Accordingly, while this Statement remains in effect, DOB will consider the following notice substantially similar to the notice shown above:

    ‘STATE OF ILLINOIS COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT NOTICE

    The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (Department) evaluates our performance in meeting the financial services needs of this community, including the needs of low-income to moderate-income households. The Department takes this evaluation into account when deciding on certain applications submitted by us for approval by the Department. Your involvement is encouraged. You may obtain a copy of our evaluation once the Department completes our first evaluation. You may also submit signed, written comments about our performance in meeting community financial services needs to the Department. We will update this notice when our first evaluation has been issued.’”)
     

  • Illinois Community Reinvestment Act, 205 ILCS 735/35-20 (“Each covered financial institution shall provide, in the public lobby of each of its offices, if any, and on its website, a public notice that is substantially similar to the following:

    Each covered financial institution shall provide, in the public lobby of each of its offices, if any, and on its website, a public notice that is substantially similar to the following:

    ‘STATE OF ILLINOIS COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT NOTICE

    The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (Department) evaluates our performance in meeting the financial services needs of this community, including the needs of low-income to moderate-income households. The Department takes this evaluation into account when deciding on certain applications submitted by us for approval by the Department. Your involvement is encouraged. You may obtain a copy of our evaluation. You may also submit signed, written comments about our performance in meeting community financial services needs to the Department.’”)
     

  • FDIC CRA Regulations, 12 CFR 345, Appendix B, CRA Notice (“At least 30 days before the beginning of each quarter, the FDIC publishes a nationwide list of the banks that are scheduled for CRA examination in that quarter. This list is available from the Regional Director, FDIC (address). You may send written comments about our performance in helping to meet community credit needs to (name and address of official at bank) and FDIC Regional Director. You may also submit comments electronically through the FDIC's Web site at www.fdic.gov/regulations/cra. Your letter, together with any response by us, will be considered by the FDIC in evaluating our CRA performance and may be made public.”)
     
  • FDIC CRA Regulations, 12 CFR 345, Appendix B, CRA Notice (“You may ask to look at any comments received by the FDIC Regional Director. You may also request from the FDIC Regional Director an announcement of our applications covered by the CRA filed with the FDIC. We are an affiliate of (name of holding company), a bank holding company. You may request from the (title of responsible official), Federal Reserve Bank of ______________(address) an announcement of applications covered by the CRA filed by bank holding companies.”)
     
  • Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Community Reinvestment, 81 Fed. Reg. 48505, 48556 (July 7, 2016) (“OCC-, FDIC-, and Board-supervised institutions: ‘Officer in Charge of Supervision’ is the title of the responsible official at the appropriate Federal Reserve Bank.”)
  • FDIC Organization Directory – Regional Offices, Chicago (“Chicago Regional Offices, 300 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60606-3447”)