Success by JazE Edutech / Interactive Tool
Interactive Tool
Run any loan through the CRA Retail Lending Test loan-line counter: see if it counts, which major product line it feeds, and which benchmark buckets it fills.
The Retail Lending Test is how the 2023 CRA rule scores a large bank's lending across defined retail loan categories — closed-end and open-end home mortgages, multifamily, small business, small farm, automobile, credit card, and other consumer loans. A loan counts when it fits a category and was originated or purchased during the evaluation period, and it feeds the test's benchmark buckets when the property or borrower sits in a retail lending assessment area, while wholesale, warehouse, and construction-only loans are excluded.
Use the interactive calculator or simulator below.
Full written guide, sources, and FAQs
A loan-by-loan eligibility console for the 2023 CRA Retail Lending Test: pick the product and its attributes, and the counter rules whether it counts, where it is excluded, and which benchmark buckets it feeds.
This resource helps readers connect CRA retail lending test to classroom practice, standards-aware implementation, and responsible next steps for schools and sponsors.
The Retail Lending Test is how the 2023 CRA Final Rule measures how well a large bank serves retail borrowers and communities through its lending. Rather than one blended score, the rule organizes lending into defined major product lines — closed-end home mortgage loans and small business and small farm loans lead the list — and scores borrower mix, geographic spread, and volume against benchmarks the agencies publish. The loan-line counter on this page runs a single loan through those counting rules, gate by gate, so teams can see exactly why a line qualifies.
Choose the product family, purpose, borrower, security, amount, assessment-area location, and origination status. The counter returns three things in real time: whether the loan counts as a qualifying retail loan, which major product line it feeds, and which benchmark buckets it fills. It is a training and triage instrument built on the rule's counting mechanics, not a prediction of any rating.
Under the 2023 rule, the retail loan categories are closed-end home mortgage loans, open-end home mortgage loans, multifamily loans, small business loans, small farm loans, automobile loans, credit card loans, and other consumer loans. A loan that fits one of these categories is a candidate for the test, and the rule counts both loans a bank originates and loans it purchases during the evaluation period. The counter maps your selection to one of these categories before anything else.
Three structures fail the first gate. Wholesale loans extend credit to other financial institutions for resale rather than to a community borrower. Warehouse lines fund another lender's inventory of loans awaiting sale. Construction and development loans sit outside the retail loan categories the test evaluates. When any of these is selected, the counter flips the determination chip to Excluded and stops further scoring.
Category fit is not the end of the story. A genuine retail loan can still fail to feed the test's benchmarks when the property or borrower sits outside the bank's retail lending assessment areas, and consumer-category loans only feed the test when the consumer major product line is being evaluated. The counter labels each of those states separately so nothing is silently dropped.
The counter asks for seven attributes that mirror the questions examiners ask first about any loan file. Product family decides the candidate category. Purpose and security confirm the fit, for example a 1-4 family dwelling behind a home mortgage loan. Borrower type separates households from business and farm entities. Amount, assessment-area location, and origination status decide which benchmark buckets the line can feed.
The output panel holds three linked views that update as you toggle inputs, and the read that matters is which buckets fill, not a single pass-fail verdict. Three benchmark buckets — borrower distribution, geographic distribution, and lending volume — light when a qualifying loan sits inside a retail lending assessment area. They dim when a condition blocks the fill: a consumer-category loan keeps its buckets dark until the consumer major product line is elected, and a qualifying loan booked outside your retail lending assessment areas leaves the assessment-area buckets dark because those benchmarks are scored inside them. They go fully dark on the Excluded path, where no structure qualifies. The determination chip echoes the state — Counts, Conditional, or Excluded — and the product-line badge names the major product line the loan feeds or, on any dark path, the reason no buckets can fill.
Lit buckets mean the loan belongs in a retail loan category and is feeding the test's benchmark math; they do not predict performance, because benchmarks compare your distributions and volumes against published reference points. The states to resolve before an exam are the conditional ones: a consumer loan waiting on the election, or a qualifying loan booked outside your assessment areas.
The counter applies the 2023 rule's category definitions and counting logic in simplified form. It does not compute performance scores, weights, or rating conclusions, and it does not know your bank's actual assessment-area delineations, elections, or evaluation periods. Treat every output as an illustrative estimate for training and triage, not a compliance determination.
Implementation context matters. Compliance dates under the 2023 CRA Final Rule generally began January 1, 2026. Implementation expectations have shifted since the rule was finalized; confirm current compliance dates and requirements with your primary regulator before acting on any determination. Thresholds and category definitions are also adjusted over time.
This counter is the loan-level layer of a broader CRA qualification library. SuccessEdu's CRA library gives bank teams exam-ready tools and plain-language explainers like these, so a lending, compliance, or community development staff member can move from one loan decision to the full exam framework without leaving the cluster. Use the test-by-test anatomy study to see where retail lending sits among qualified activities, the interactive rating qualifier to connect lending results to the exam framework, and the 2023 Final Rule explainer for the timeline and data changes behind these categories. The small business loan reportability checker covers the data-collection side of the same loan files.
This tool and page are educational resources from SuccessEdu and do not constitute legal, regulatory, or compliance advice, nor a determination of CRA treatment, performance, or rating for any bank or loan. Regulatory interpretations vary with bank facts, assessment-area maps, and agency guidance, and agencies may change how the 2023 rule is implemented. Validate every determination against the current regulation and your regulator's guidance before relying on it.
No. The test is the lending evaluation framework the 2023 rule applies to large banks, generally those with $2 billion or more in assets, a threshold adjusted annually. Smaller and intermediate small banks continue under different evaluation approaches, and wholesale and limited-purpose institutions are largely exempt from standard CRA exams. Confirm your bank's status before counting loans.
Under the 2023 rule, both originated and purchased loans count in retail lending volume, which is a shift from earlier frameworks that leaned on originations. The counter asks for origination status so each determination mirrors how the loan actually entered your book.
Closed-end home mortgage loans and small business and small farm loans are the lines evaluated by default. Open-end home mortgage loans are a related retail loan category whose treatment follows elections in the rule, and consumer loans — automobile, credit card, and other consumer categories — join the evaluation when the bank elects them or when the rule's significance conditions are met.
Because both extend credit to other financial institutions rather than to retail borrowers in the community. The test measures lending that reaches households and small businesses, so loans that simply finance another lender's resale inventory sit outside every retail loan category.
It remains a retail loan in its category, but it generally does not feed the borrower, geographic, and volume benchmarks that are scored inside your retail lending assessment areas. Delineation is why the counter treats location as a separate gate rather than folding it into category fit.
The 2023 rule treats multifamily loans as their own retail loan category. The multifamily benchmarks are built around where the properties sit (low- and moderate-income census tracts) and how many units are affordable, rather than around borrower demographics. A multifamily loan that is primarily for a qualifying community development purpose may also be evaluated on the community development side, so coordinate the two tracks to avoid double counting.
No. It is an educational illustration of counting mechanics under the 2023 rule, built with simplified assumptions. Examiners apply official procedures, your bank's actual assessment areas, and agency guidance that continues to evolve. Use the counter to train and triage, then validate against the current regulation.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
FFIEC / Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
A model blueprint that dissects one illustrative bank-school financial education partnership against the CRA qualification tests — with an interactive Qualification Anatomy Lab that toggles the specimen's components on and off, and a five-factor scorecard you run on your own program.
One hypothetical LIHTC investment, replayed through every CRA checkpoint — tract mapping, syndication, the equity commitment, and the exam file — to show exactly where eligibility is earned and documented.
The 2023 CRA final rule made infrastructure financing an explicit qualifying category and names broadband directly in the regulation. Here are the eligibility gates, the documentation to assemble, and three illustrative deal sketches.