On December 20, 2018 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, together referred to as the Agencies, published the annual adjustment to the asset-size thresholds used to define small bank, small savings association, intermediate small bank, and intermediate small savings association under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations.
Annual adjustments to these asset-size thresholds are based on the change in the average of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), not seasonally adjusted, for each 12-month period ending in November, with rounding to the nearest million. With a 2.59 percent increase in the CPI-W, the definitions of small and intermediate small institutions for CRA examinations will change as follows effective January 1, 2019:
- “Small bank” or “small savings association” means an institution that, as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years, had assets of less than $1.284 billion.
- “Intermediate small bank” or “intermediate small savings association” means a small institution with assets of at least $321 million as of December 31 of both of the prior two calendar years and less than $1.284 billion as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years.
The adjustments were published in the Federal Register on December 27, 2018.