On June 30, 2026, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve Board (FRB), and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released the 2026 list of distressed or underserved nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies.
For Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) purposes, revitalization or stabilization activities in these designated geographies may be eligible for community development consideration. The list matters because eligibility can change from year to year as geographies are added, removed, or retained based on updated conditions.
The distressed and underserved list identifies nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies where certain revitalization or stabilization activities may receive CRA consideration under the community development definition.
The agencies update the designations annually. Prior agency releases, including the 2025 release, have described the designations as reflecting local economic conditions, including unemployment, poverty, and population changes.
That annual refresh creates a practical documentation issue for CRA teams. An activity that supported CRA consideration in one geography last year may be located in a geography that is no longer designated this year.
For distressed nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies, the Interagency CRA Q&As describe qualifying revitalization or stabilization activity as activity that helps attract new businesses or residents, or helps retain those already present, and that contributes to the area’s economic vitality. Activities that align with a bona fide government revitalization or stabilization plan receive a presumption of qualification under that guidance. That guidance also identifies job creation, retention, or improvement, and benefit to low- and moderate-income individuals, as relevant factors for CRA and Community Development officers to document when building the qualification record for an activity.
For underserved nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies, the same guidance frames the qualifying standard around essential community needs rather than economic revitalization: whether an activity helps meet needs such as healthcare, education, public safety, communications, affordable housing, transportation, or utility infrastructure. The guidance’s illustrative examples include hospitals, broadband infrastructure, sewer improvements, mixed-income housing developments with affordable units, schools, and flood control projects that serve the community as a whole rather than a limited segment. CRA officers should document how a proposed investment, loan, or service connects to one of these essential-needs categories, and whether it also benefits low- and moderate-income residents.
In both distressed and underserved geographies, the qualification standard described in the guidance turns on whether the activity advances the specific revitalization, stabilization, or essential community needs identified for the geography, not on a project’s location alone. Institutions should maintain documentation that links each activity to identified community needs, government plans where applicable, and measurable community outcomes. This documentation supports a stronger foundation for demonstrating that an activity satisfies the CRA's community development purpose, rather than merely occurring within a designated geography.
The annual update means some geographies were added, others retained, and others removed from the distressed and underserved designation. Rather than relying on last year's list, institutions should compare both files to understand how the changes affect the opportunity to qualify community development activity. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) publishes both the current and prior-year files to support this review.
| Category | Why It Matters |
| Newly designated geographies | Community development activities beginning in these geographies may now qualify for CRA consideration if they otherwise meet applicable requirements. |
| Retained geographies | Existing qualification assumptions generally continue, although institutions should verify the current designation, the activity purpose, and alignment with the qualification criteria. |
| Removed geographies | Activities may remain eligible during the agencies' one-year lag period. Institutions should document which list applied when the activity occurred. |
| No designation | Activities in areas with no distressed or underserved designation should be reviewed in alignment with the community development purposes, recognizing that qualification as revitalizing a distressed or underserved geography is unlikely. |
Tip: Download both the 2025 and 2026 FFIEC lists and compare them before updating community development processes, procedures, or templates.
Compared with the 2025 list, the 2026 distressed and underserved list added 54 nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies, removed 267, and retained 4,316 designations. The 2026 list includes 4,370 designated geographies. Institutions should ensure qualification processes review activities based on applicable designations at the time the activity occurred.
| Change | Number of Geographies |
| Added in 2026 | 54 |
| Removed from 2026 | 267 |
| Present in both 2025 and 2026 | 4,316 |
| Total 2026 designations | 4,370 |
The most important change is that the applicable geography list has been refreshed for 2026. CRA teams should not rely on the 2025 list when evaluating current activity, exam preparation materials, or community development tracking.
At a minimum, institutions should compare:
The FFIEC maintains annual distressed and underserved tract files, including prior-year files, which allows institutions to compare designation changes across years.
The CRA regulations, as outlined in the Interagency CRA Q&As, provide a one-year transition period for nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies that were designated as distressed or underserved in the prior year but are no longer included on the current list. During this lag period, community development activities remain eligible for CRA consideration under the prior designation.
For CRA and Community Development officers, the one-year lag is less about changing how activities are evaluated and more about understanding which designation applies at the time an activity is undertaken. Institutions that consistently document the activity date and the applicable annual FFIEC designation can generally evaluate these activities without altering their CRA processes.
The practical value of the lag provision is continuity. It helps prevent ongoing community development efforts from losing CRA consideration simply because a geography's designation changes from one year to the next. Maintaining records that capture the activity date, geography, applicable FFIEC designation, CRA purpose, and supporting documentation can make it easier to substantiate eligibility during examinations and support consistent CRA reporting over time.
Institutions should treat the annual release as a scheduled review point rather than an exam-season task.
Institutions may also want to review their overall CRA program governance to confirm annual geographic updates are incorporated into ongoing monitoring, reporting, and examination preparation. See RiskExec's Resource Center for additional guidance on community development, assessment areas, and CRA compliance workflows.
Many institutions still manage community development activity across spreadsheets, emails, shared folders, and manual workpapers.
That structure creates friction when the annual list changes. CRA teams may need to reconstruct where activity occurred, which list was used, whether lag-period eligibility applies, and whether the activity was assigned to the correct CRA purpose category.
This work is especially difficult when activity records are not standardized across:
RiskExec has published related guidance on CRA and community development loan identification, including the importance of consistent review processes, documentation standards, and ongoing collaboration between lending and compliance teams.
The annual FFIEC distressed and underserved geography list is updated on a predictable schedule, giving CRA teams an opportunity to understand how designation changes affect the communities they serve.
A structured annual review helps answer one key question:
Which assessment areas or broader community development markets include newly designated distressed or underserved geographies in 2026?
Identifying new designations helps institutions recognize where future community development activities may qualify under the CRA's revitalization and stabilization provisions or underserved geography criteria. Rather than creating a separate annual compliance exercise, reviewing the updated geography list should be part of the institution's routine community development planning and market monitoring process.
RiskExec’s Community Development module supports CRA teams that need a structured system of record for community development activity. The module page identifies functionality for centralized records, structured classification, assessment area alignment, embedded documentation, audit trail, examiner-ready reporting, executive dashboards, multi-year trend views, and geographic footprint visualizations.
Relevant capabilities include:
The 2026 distressed and underserved geography list should be treated as a routine planning and monitoring input, not a requalification exercise for prior community development activity.
CRA teams should use the annual update to understand the geography set in which the institution operates and identify whether any assessment areas or broader community development markets include newly designated distressed or underserved geographies. That awareness can help teams evaluate future loans, investments, services, and donations under the appropriate CRA purpose standard.
The one-year lag period remains relevant for activities tied to geographies that were designated in the prior year but are no longer on the current list. In those cases, the key is to document the activity date and applicable designation year so the record clearly supports the CRA treatment.
As part of routine community development monitoring, institutions should maintain activity records in a system that captures geography, activity date, CRA purpose, assessment area, and supporting documentation. Schedule a Community Development demo to see how RiskExec supports structured CRA activity tracking.
The 2026 distressed and underserved list identifies nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies where certain revitalization or stabilization activities may be eligible for CRA community development consideration.
The list is released by the federal banking agencies, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve Board, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The FFIEC also maintains annual files for distressed and underserved tracts.
The agencies update designations annually based on changing local conditions, including factors such as unemployment, poverty, and population changes.
The one-year lag period allows certain activities in geographies that were designated in the prior year, but removed from the current-year list, to remain eligible for CRA consideration during the lag period.
CRA teams should use the 2026 list to understand which distressed or underserved geographies are present in the markets they serve, identify any newly designated areas, and document the applicable designation year when the one-year lag period applies.
Documentation helps show which geography list applied, why the activity was considered eligible, and whether the institution relied on current-year designation or lag-period treatment.
