I am new to CRA and am facing an exam here in the near future. I would like to find a true definition of what is "public comments and responses" that should be in the CRA Public File. Can anyone help with a definition or give examples. I was perplexed by what the reg said.

Public comments are comments made by the public or non-governmental agencies, regarding your CRA status. WHat does this mean? If a local small business entity writes a letter to the bank, complaining that the banks is ignoring the small business needs of it's assessment area (or community) and thereby not abiding by the spirit of CRA, you'd have a public comment to file. You then want to respond and file that response with the comment.

http://www.suntrust.com/common/CRA/comments.asp This is a public file section from a large bank looking at merger. Comments on their CRA activities are posted here.

What you wouldn't put in your file would be advertisements, thank you letters, donation requests (unless they envoked Sunshine) etc. General letters from agencies or people that thank the bank for it's assistance (IE FNB is the best bank in our community. We want to thank them for offering the Girl Scouts a place to hold our last council meeting....blah blah). The letter is nice but it's not addressing CRA or your service efforts in a specific manner.

Don't clog your CRA file with general comments and donation requests. I've seen it time and time again. Keep it to specific comments about your services/lending to the communities you serve. And again, if a request envokes Sunshine, be sure to keep that in both the main file for public comments and in a special folder for Sunshine agreements.

What do you mean when you say sunshine Dawnie?

(Sorry if this is a dumb question, they just handed me a file folder and said I was the CRA oficer - that's all I know!)

LOL Quit taking file folders from strangers little girl! See what happens!

Sunshine is a regulation that went into place a few years ago, basically to keep us and the community groups who twist our ears honest. This is the english version (From my CRA policy)

Sunshine Provision
In compliance with the CRA Sunshine provisions of the Gramm-leach-Bliley Act effective April 2001, The Bank will maintain all required documentation in it’s public file and report agreements covered by the law.

A covered agreement or understanding must meet all of the following criteria to be reported under the new CRA sunshine rule:

¨ The agreement is in writing

¨ The parties include the bank and at least one non government entity or person (NGEP)

¨ The agreement provides cash payments, grants or other consideration (except loans) in excess of $10,000 in any calendar year to one or more individual or entity; or makes loans in excess of $50,000 in any calendar year to one or more individual or entity

¨ The agreement is made pursuant to, or in connection with the CRA

Furthermore, the NGEP involved must have had a prior CRA communication with the bank before any agreement in which it is involved will become a covered agreement. The specific topic of the communication must be the adequacy of the CRA performance of the bank.

A CRA communication is defined to include any of the following:

¨ Any written or oral comment or testimony provided to a Federal banking agency concerning the adequacy of the performance under the CRA of the bank

¨ Any written comment submitted to the bank that discusses the adequacy of the performance of the bank under the CRA and that must be included in the bank’s CRA public file

¨ Any discussion or other contact with the bank about providing or refraining from providing written or oral comments or testimony to any Federal banking agency concerning the adequacy of the performance of the bank under the CRA

¨ Any discussion or other contact with the bank about providing or refraining from providing written comments that concern the adequacy of the bank’s CRA performance and that must be included in the bank’s CRA public file and

¨ Any discussion or other contact with the bank about the adequacy of the performance of the bank under the CRA

Such discussions or comments must be made with a person knowledgeable of the communication as defined by the law.

*A discussion about whether a particular product or service will receive favorable CRA consideration is not considered a CRA communication under the law.

The bank’s CRA Officer will be responsible for ensuring that all data is properly collected and submitted and will work with the bank’s lending and electronic data processing professionals to provide for accurate collection.

Thanks Dawnie, I had no idea!

See the FDIC's FIL--CRA Sunshine, Regulation G

Thanks Maj...I cleaned up the link (it had an extra HTTP) And for folks reading the link...it's for FDIC regulated banks. Check your regulatory agency for their reporting address.

Dawnie, what about a survey that is given to a customer after closing their deposit account and they respond in the survey that they believe minorities aren't loaned money when they should have been. This customer never requested a loan from us. Does this type of comment have to be in our CRA public file? And, do we have to respond in writing? The branch manager phoned the customer and left a voice mail but the guy never has called back.