CRA encourages financial institutions not only to extend mortgage, small business, and other types of credit to lower-income neighborhoods and households, but also to provide investments and services to lowerincome areas and people as part of an overall effort to build the capacity necessary for these places to thrive.
An important role of a central bank is to step in and provide liquidity to ensure market functioning during those “unusual and exigent circumstances.” 10 And under those circumstances, since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Secretary of the Treasury is required to approve any new programs under the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending authority.