Company: ASB
Filing Date: 2025-02-12
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000007789-25-000013
Chunk: 147

Company: ASSOCIATED BANC-CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-12
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 147
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 features for the financial institution. See Note 3 Loans of the notes to consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, for additional information on loans to related parties.

Community Reinvestment Act Requirements

Associated Bank is subject to periodic CRA reviews by the OCC. The CRA does not establish specific lending requirements or programs for financial institutions and does not limit the ability of such institutions to develop products and services believed best-suited for a particular community. An institution’s CRA assessment may be used by its regulators in their evaluation of 

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certain applications, including a merger, acquisition or the establishment of a branch office. An unsatisfactory rating may be used as the basis for denial of such an application. The Bank received a “Satisfactory” CRA rating in its most recent evaluation.

On October 24, 2023, the federal banking agencies jointly issued a final rule to strengthen and modernize the existing CRA regulations. Under the final rule, the agencies will evaluate a bank’s CRA performance based upon the varied activities that it conducts and the communities in which it operates. CRA evaluations and data collection requirements will be tailored based on bank size and type. The Bank would be considered a large bank with assets of greater than $10 billion under the final rule and therefore will be evaluated under retail lending, retail services and products, community development financing, and community development services tests. Under the final rule, the retail lending test would include an evaluation of a financial institution’s automobile loans if they represent a majority of the institution’s retail lending or at the institution’s option. The final rule significantly expands the assessment area that financial institutions must consider when evaluating their lending practices by including areas associated with mobile and online banking and includes new metrics and benchmarks to assess retail lending performance. In addition, the final rule emphasizes smaller loans and investments that can have a high impact and be more responsive to the needs of LMI communities. 

On March 29, 2024, a federal district court in Texas granted a preliminary injunction barring implementation of the final rule. The injunction extends the effective date of April 1, 2024, and all other implementation dates, on a day-for-day basis until the injunction is lifted. While the federal banking agencies are appealing the district court’s decision, to date the injunction remains in effect and implementation of the final rule is delayed indefinitely. Compliance with the majority of the final rule's provisions otherwise would not have been required until January 1, 2026 and the data reporting requirements of the final rule