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Has the CRA Increased Lending for Low-Income Home Purchases?
...Three changes in the late 1980s and the 1990s may help explain a delay in the CRA’s effectiveness. First, in 1989, the CRA was amended to require public access to CRA examination evaluations and performance ratings. This likely helped motivate banks to comply with the CRA in order to avoid adverse publicity. Second, and perhaps more importantly, in 1995, the CRA evaluation process increased the emphasis on actual lending and decreased the emphasis on banks’ documentation of their efforts to assess community needs. ...