OCC Continues Community Bank Comeback with Revised CBLR Framework

$64 billion to be freed up to support Main Street lending
95% of community banks are eligible for CBLR framework

WASHINGTON—The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency today issued a revised compliance guide for the community bank leverage ratio (CBLR) framework as part of its ongoing work to provide regulatory relief for community banks.

“Community banks are the backbone of the American economy, serving as the conduit to capital for small businesses and hardworking families across the country,” said United States Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould. “President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent are leading a community bank comeback by unleashing Parallel Prosperity for Main Street and Wall Street. The OCC is proud to support their efforts by reducing cumbersome regulations that have long hindered these vital institutions and impeded U.S. economic growth.”

The updated guide is intended to help community banking organizations understand the revisions to the optional CBLR framework that went into effect July 1, 2026. The framework provides a simple measure of capital adequacy for certain community banking organizations and reduces regulatory burden while promoting safety and soundness.

Overall, 95 percent of community banks could benefit from the burden-reducing framework. The revisions to the CBLR framework will free up an estimated $64 billion that could support additional lending to Main Street.

The OCC remains committed to addressing the challenges for community banks and has taken a series of actions to rightsize regulatory burden and tailor supervisory activities so these institutions may grow and continue to meet the needs of the customers and small businesses they serve. These actions include:

• Creating a distinct line of supervision focused on community banks and the issues that affect them most.
• Removing previously required OCC examination activities and instead tailored examination scope and frequency in a manner that is consistent with risk-based supervision.
• Increasing the upper asset range of the community bank supervision portfolio to give them room to grow organically or through acquisition, without facing the increased supervision scrutiny that comes with larger or more complex banks assigned to other supervision portfolios.
• Updating the OCC’s model risk management guidance to clarify that model risk management should be risk-based, tailored, and commensurate with a bank’s size, complexity, and extent of model use, excluding community banks from unnecessary requirements.
• Simplifying licensing requirements and alleviating unnecessary compliance burdens by expanding community banks’ access to expedited or reduced filing procedures.
• Establishing Community Bank Minimum Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering examination procedures to tailor supervisory activities to community banks’ generally low money laundering/terrorist financing risk levels and eliminated Money Laundering Risk System data collection requirements.
• Reducing complexity by clarifying that the OCC will not use expanded procedures—generally unsuitable to community banks—when examining community banks’ retail nondeposit investment product offerings.
• Eliminating duplicative data collection requirements, further alleviating regulatory reporting burden for community banks.
• Proposing guidance for a simplified Community Reinvestment Act strategic plan process to help community banks better focus their resources on local credit needs and clarify measurable goals and other requirements.

Related Link

• CBLR Framework Community Bank Compliance Guide (Revised, July 2026) (PDF)