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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 178 / Friday, September 17, 2021 / Proposed Rules
an IDIs assessment areas.75 With respect to wholesale and limited purpose institutions, the 1995 Rules provided that the Agencies may consider CD activities nationwide if the IDI had adequately addressed the needs of its assessment areas.76 The Q&As clarified the circumstances in which the Agencies would provide consideration for activities in the broader statewide or regional area but generally did not provide consideration for activities nationwide.77
In contrast, the June 2020 Rule provided nationwide consideration of qualifying activities for banks evaluated under the general performance standards. To provide consistency across bank type during the transition period, the OCC also explained in guidance that any OCC-regulated bank may receive consideration for qualifying activities outside of its assessment areas that do not directly or indirectly serve its assessment areas provided certain conditions were met.78 The OCC
requests specific comment on whether:
The OCC should continue to provide consideration for activities that do not directly or indirectly serve a banks assessment areas or the broader statewide or regional areas that include a banks assessment areas under the proposed rules.
What conditions, if any, should be met in order for the OCC to provide consideration for activities that do not directly or indirectly serve a banks assessment areas or the broader statewide or regional areas that include a banks assessment areas?

E. CD Activity Confirmation Process and Illustrative List Stakeholders generally supported the creation of the qualifying activities confirmation process and illustrative list in the June 2020 Rule. These provisions clarified the activities that would receive consideration in an OCCregulated banks CRA examination.
Because the qualifying activity confirmation process is procedural and applies facts regarding a potential qualifying activity to qualifying activity criteria set forth in the June 2020 Rule, the OCC could have interpreted and
provided guidance on which activities would receive consideration in CRA
examinations without codifying the process in the June 2020 Rule.
The OCC is considering whether to implement a qualifying activities confirmation process based on the CD
definition in the 1995 Rules, as interpreted through the Q&As, while the OCC is working on the interagency CRA
rulemaking process. Providing for a qualifying activities confirmation process outside of the CRA rules would be the least disruptive outcome for banks and interested parties that have found the process beneficial. Moreover, maintaining a confirmation process is not inconsistent with the Board ANPR, which included a suggestion related to a qualifying activities confirmation process. The OCC also would maintain the illustrative list of qualifying activities on its website as a reference for banks to determine whether activities that they conducted while the June 2020 Rule was in effect are eligible for CRA consideration; however, activities included on the illustrative list may not receive consideration if conducted after the effective date of the final rules. The OCC requests specific comment on whether:
The OCC should implement a CD activity confirmation process during the period between the rescission of the June 2020 Rule and the issuance of prospective joint interagency rules.

F. Strategic Plans The June 2020 Rule revised the requirements for requesting approval of a strategic plan. Among other things, the June 2020 Rule permitted banks requesting approval for a strategic plan to include target market assessment areas. For purposes of any final rules, the OCC proposes to maintain any strategic plans approved by the OCC
under the June 2020 Rule and would not require these banks to amend their strategic plans. The OCC believes that permitting strategic plan banks to maintain their target market assessment areas is not inconsistent with proposed
12 CFR 25.41 and would cause the least disruption during the transition from the OCCs June 2020 Rule to any future interagency final rules. The OCC
requests specific comment on whether:
The OCCs proposed plan to maintain strategic plans approved under the June 2020
Rule with target market assessment areas is a reasonable way of addressing this transition consideration.

G. June 2020 Rule Subpart E
Subpart E of the June 2020 Rule includes the data collection, recordkeeping, and reporting provisions. Most of these provisions were subject to a January 1, 2023, or January 1, 2024, compliance date, and, therefore, do not require any transition.
However, the changes to the public file requirements took effect October 1, 2020. These changes reduced the information required in the public file and changed the requirements for how an OCC-regulated bank makes the public file available to the public, including permitting these banks to make the public file available solely on their websites. Under the proposed rules, banks would need to include additional information in their public file and make the file available at their main office, and for interstate banks, at one branch in each State and more limited information at each branch.
Since the proposed rules would impose additional public file content and availability requirements, the OCC
expects to provide in the final rules that banks would comply with these requirements no later than three months after the effective date of the final rules.
The OCC specifically requests comment on whether:
Three months is sufficient time for banks to make the changes necessary to comply with the public file content and availability requirements of the proposed rules.
The OCC should enact a transition period for the public notice requirements that took effect on October 1, 2020.

H. Summary Chart of Proposed Transition Considerations
OCC RESCIND AND REPLACE TRANSITION CONSIDERATIONS
Description of the proposed provision
Proposed transition plan Bank Type Changes
Certain small banks i.e., banks with at least $330 million but less than $600 million in assets.

These small banks would become ISBs as of the effective date of any final rules. The change in bank type would be considered as part of performance context when evaluating the banks CRA performance. No additional transition time would be provided for adjusting to the ISB performance standards.
77 Q&A ll.12h6; Q&A ll.12h7; and Q&A ll.23a2.
78 See OCC Bulletin 202099, Community Reinvestment Act: Key Provisions of the June 2020

75 Id.
76 Id.

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