National Community Reinvestment Coalition: CRA Commitments (PDF)
...Since the passage of CRA in 1977, lenders and community organizations have signed over 446 CRA agreements totaling more than $4.5 trillion in reinvestment dollars flowing to minority and lower income neighborhoods.

Lenders and community groups will often sign these agreements when a lender has submitted an application to merge with another institution or expand its services. Lenders must seek the approval of federal regulators for their plans to merge or change their services. The four federal financial institution regulatory agencies will scrutinize the CRA records of lenders and will assess the likely future community reinvestment performance of lenders. The application process, therefore, provides an incentive for lenders to sign CRA agreements with community groups that will improve their CRA performance. Recognizing the important role of collaboration between lenders and community groups, the federal agencies have established mechanisms in their application procedures that encourage dialogue and cooperation among the parties in preserving and strengthening community reinvestment.

A CRA agreement is often a comprehensive document that covers a wide range of loans, investments, and bank services. This publication first provides a detailed list, by state and year, of the number of CRA agreements, and lists the banks and community groups signing the agreements. It then covers, in depth, the innovative affordable housing, small business, and other products contained in CRA agreements....

...Two major factors contribute to the incredible burst of commitments since 1992. First of all, NCRC members and other community organizations are becoming increasingly sophisticated in terms of being able to articulate community needs as well as providing homeownership counseling and other types of services in partnerships with banks. There has been a strong growth in community organizations in the last few years. NCRC started off with a membership of 16 groups in 1992 and now has over 600 member organizations -- all of who either use CRA in their daily work or at least believe it is important to preserve and improve the law....