Over the past 25 years, the Community Reinvestment Act has been found to expand access to mortgage credit. But the banking world keeps evolving. Lending gains were strong during the 1990s, yet disparities still exist. This article provides highlights of an important paper that was produced by...

This Economic Letter discusses some of the research on whether the CRA has helped alleviate any shortfall in LMI home purchase lending. Overall, the literature suggests that, while the effects of the CRA versus the effects of other developments are not easy to separate, access to credit for the...

I identify and quantify the mortgage supply effect of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a law mandating that banks help provide credit in lower-income neighborhoods, by exploiting a discontinuity in the selection rule determining which census tracts CRA targets. Using a comprehensive source...

This article provides background on the evolution of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and fair lending regulations, summarizes the relevant economic literature, and evaluates the effectiveness of the regulations by analyzing recent trends in mortgage lending activity. Are the trends in line with...