Links to Regulators, Research & Data Resources
On this page, you can find links to online data and research resources. Links to New York City and national organizations, as well as to community development financial institutions, can be found on the main links page.
Online Research and Data Resources
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National Information Center
The National Information Center (NIC) provides comprehensive information on banks and other institutions for which the Federal Reserve has a supervisory, regulatory, or research interest including both domestic and foreign banking organizations operating in the U.S. The NIC includes the organizational structure of financial institutions and financial information for some of those institutions. Historical information is available on the structure of all the institutions. Financial information is available for selected time periods. If you click on "institution history" at the top of the page, you will be taken to a page where you can find out what banks a given institution has acquired, or what happened to a specific bank.
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The Data Center
The DataCenter's mission is to provide social justice advocates, especially low income people and people of color, access to strategic information, analysis, and research skills that will help them conduct more effective campaigns. Among the many great resources available at their website, the Data Center has a very comprehensive list of online research and data resources, with specific sections on company information, corporate responsibility, government information, money and politics, labor, and welfare and economic rights, among others.
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Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
In addition to being a great source of news on freedom of the press, this useful website has a simple and comprehensive guide to what is covered by the federal Freedom of Information Law (FOIA). They also have an amazing automated fill-in-the-blank FOIA letter generator, where you fill in all the information and answer some questions. Once you are done, click on the button that says "Create Letter." This will send you a letter as a World-Wide Web page that you can save as a document for editing in your word processor, or print it out directly. This site also features "Tapping Officials' Secrets," a state-by-state guide to open record and open meeting laws. An invaluable resource.
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THOMAS: Legislative Information on the Internet
This is a Congressional website that tracks bills, and on which you can search by bill number, or by phrase. THOMAS has the Congressional Record and full text of legislation available from 1989 (101st Congress) to the present. In addition, summaries (not full text) of legislation are available back to 1975 (94th Congress).
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Poverty and Race Research Action Council (PRRAC)
PRRAC is a non-partisan, national, not-for-profit organization convened by major civil rights, civil liberties and anti-poverty groups. PRRAC's purpose is to link social science research to advocacy work in order to successfully address problems at the intersection of race and poverty. Their site features sections on a range of issues including health, community organizing, immigration, and welfare, with articles and resources for each topic.
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Applied Research Center (ARC)
The Applied Research Center is a public policy, educational and research institute whose work emphasizes issues of race and social change. They have many articles on welfare and welfare reform, and recently published a new book, "From Poverty to Punishment: How Welfare Reform Punishes the Poor." ARC also houses the Welfare Advocacy Research Project.
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National Priorities Project
The National Priorities Project (NPP) offers tools and resources to shape federal budget and policy priorities which promote social and economic justice. NPP has focused on the trade-offs between military spending and tax breaks with social spending. The website includes the NPP Database, the first interactive database providing state-level data on socio-economic needs and federal expenditures on such issues as hunger, education, housing, poverty/income and military spending. It allows the user to create customized tables, graphs and reports.
Federal & State Regulatory Agencies
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Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
The FDIC website includes quarterly Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) exam schedules, pending bank applications for state- chartered banks that are not members of the Federal Reserve, along with annual summary deposit data for all banks by county and zip code, extensive statistical research data, and other banking and consumer information.
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Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve Board website includes CRA exam schedule information and ratings for state-chartered banks that are members of Fed system, applications received and actions taken on member banks, bank holding company applications, and publications of the Federal Reserve.
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Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has its own website.
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Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
The OCC website includes quarterly exam schedules and evaluations for national banks, along with OCC regulations and legal interpretations relating to the CRA, as well as links to other regulatory agencies.
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Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)
The OTS website includes the quarterly exam schedule for federal- and many state-chartered banks.
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Federal Financial Institutions Exam Council (FFIEC)
The FFIEC is a consortium of four federal banking agencies (listed above) and that National Credit Union Administration. The website includes quarterly CRA exam schedules, CRA ratings, and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data.
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New York State Banking Department
The NYS Banking Department website explains how to file CRA comments by email, and lists CRA performance ratings for all New York State-chartered banks.
Fair Lending Laws -
Summaries and Related Websites
- Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) (12 USC 2901 et seq.) encourages certain regulated financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of their entire communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound operations. Congress passed the CRA in 1977 to end the practice of "redlining," or the denial of credit and financial services to low income communities and communities of color.
CRA Resources Online
- Fair Housing Act (FHA)
The Fair Housing Act was originally enacted as Title VIII of Civil Rights Act of 1968. The Act makes it unlawful to discriminate in the sale, rental, advertising of dwellings, in the provision of brokerage, services, or financing of any dwelling on the basis of race, color, religion, national origins, sex, handicap, or familial status.
FHA Resources Online
- Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA)
RESPA was enacted in 1974 to provide consumers with information on protecting themselves against certain unfair practices that may arise during the settlement process. RESPA requires that consumers receive disclosures at various times in the transaction and outlaws kickbacks that increase the cost of settlement services.
RESPA Resources Online
- Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) was enacted by Congress in 1975 and is implemented by the Federal Reserve Board's Regulation C. This regulation provides the public with loan data that can be used to assist: (a) in determining whether financial institutions are serving the housing needs of their communities; (b) public officials in distributing public sector investments so as to attract private investment to areas where it is needed; and (c) in identifying possible discriminatory lending patterns.
HMDA Resources Online
- Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) Regulation B
The regulation prohibits discrimination with respect to any aspect of a credit transaction on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, receipt of income from public assistance programs, and good faith exercise of any rights under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
ECOA Resources Online
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