WaFd Bank in Seattle successfully appealed its Community Reinvestment Act rating.
The bank received a “needs to improve” rating from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in late 2024 for the period covering June 2020 to March 2024.
After the bank filed an appeal with the FDIC’s Supervision Appeals Review Committee, the rating was raised to “satisfactory.” The main difference was the CRA lending test, which improved from “needs to improve” to “low satisfactory.”
“When we met in Washington, D.C, in early December, I shared with the senior leadership of the FDIC how appreciative I was of having an independent process to review significant regulatory determinations,” WaFd CEO Brent Beardall said in a press release.
“Regardless of outcome, being able to make our case that examiners were not comparing WaFd to a proper peer group and not giving enough credit to our community development lending, we felt heard,” he added. “We are grateful that the review process ultimately resulted in an upgrade.”