Because fewer than half of the respondents answered quantitative questions on performance, one must be cautious when using these responses to draw qualitative inferences comparing the performance of CRA-related and other lending. The results varied by loan product. Responses indicated that overall as well as CRA-related home purchase and refinance lending is profitable or marginally profitable for most institutions. However, CRA-related home purchase and refinance lending was reported to be less profitable and to have similar or higher delinquency rates than other home purchase and refinance lending. Concerning this product, about 63 percent of respondents said that their CRA-related lending was less profitable than their overall lending.
Differences are less dramatic when measured on a per-institution basis.
One of the strongest relationships revealed by the survey concerns the correlation between an institution s size and the profitability and performance of its CRA-related lending. Large banks were less likely than small banks to report that CRA-related lending is profitable, and much more likely to say that it is less profitable than their overall lending. However, the respondents who did report differences most often said they had lower prices or higher costs or credit losses for CRA-related home purchase and refinance loans than for others. The vast majority of respondents in all size categories said that origination and servicing costs, credit losses, and prices for home improvement lending were about the same for CRA-related loans as for others. They reported few differences in performance and profitability between CRA-related and other small business lending.