(a) In general. A bank
must delineate one or more facility-based assessment areas within
which the Board evaluates the bank’s record of helping to meet
the credit needs of its entire community pursuant to the performance
tests and strategic plan described in section 228.21.
(b) Geographic requirements
for facility-based assessment areas.
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (b)(3)
of this section, a bank’s facility-based assessment areas must
include each county in which a bank has a main office, a branch, or
a deposit-taking remote service facility, as well as the surrounding
counties in which the bank has originated or purchased a substantial
portion of its loans (including home mortgage loans, multifamily loans,
small business loans, small farm loans, and automobile loans).
(2) Except as provided
in paragraph (b)(3) of this section, each of a bank’s facility-based
assessment areas must consist of a single MSA, one or more contiguous
counties within an MSA, or one or more contiguous counties within
the nonmetropolitan area of a state.
(3) An intermediate bank or a small bank
may adjust the boundaries of its facility-based assessment areas to
include only the portion of a county that it reasonably can be expected
to serve, subject to paragraph (c) of this section. A facility-based
assessment area that includes a partial county must consist of contiguous
whole census tracts.
(c) Other limitations on
the delineation of a facility-based assessment area. Each of
a bank’s facility-based assessment areas:
(1) May not reflect illegal discrimination;
and
(2) May not arbitrarily
exclude low- or moderate-income census tracts. In determining whether
a bank has arbitrarily excluded low- or moderate-income census tracts
from a facility-based assessment area, the Board takes into account
the bank’s capacity and constraints, including its size and
financial condition.
(d) Military banks. Notwithstanding the requirements of this section, a military bank
whose customers are not located within a defined geographic area may
delineate the entire United States and its territories as its sole
facility-based assessment area.
(e) Use of facility-based
assessment areas. The Board uses the facility-based assessment
areas delineated by a bank in its evaluation of the bank’s CRA
performance unless the Board determines that the facility-based assessment
areas do not comply with the requirements of this section.
