Your CRA exam is finally over. (Longest 2–3 months of your life, right?) First of all, take a deep breath. Pat yourself on the back. The last several months have been a stressful blur of paperwork, examiners, and “why didn’t thi...
Continue ReadingIf you’ve ever had a brilliant idea at work before, you know that gathering support for it can be hard. Not everyone is going to love your idea, and even those who do may be hesitant to throw their support behind you. But if you wan...
Continue ReadingYou’ve probably heard the term before: community development loan mining. Ugh. What a chore. But as a CRA Officer or CRA Analyst, it’s your job to identify all CRA-eligible loans originated by your bank. But that doesn’t m...
Continue ReadingTraditionally, preparing for a CRA exam has been a long, frustrating process. There’s so much to do, and CRA Officers often don’t have the support they need to do it all. Instead of spending week upon endless week preparing for your...
Continue ReadingAre you part of a small CRA team? Many CRA departments are made up of only one or two people, and this makes it difficult to get everything done. You’ve been charged with meeting the credit needs of your community, which means tr...
Continue Reading(Don't forget to download the free PDF, "26 Questions to Ask Yourself When Building Your CRA Plan for the New Year." This list of questions will help you think about your CRA program and build the perfect plan to promote your progra...
Continue ReadingAre you preparing for your next CRA exam? If you are, or you will be soon, you’d probably love to get the inside scoop on how an examiner thinks about an exam. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could sit down with a CRA examiner and pic...
Continue ReadingAt some point in your journey as a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) officer, you’ll likely find yourself involved in a community-based public-private partnership economic development project. When this happens, your bank may have th...
Continue ReadingIf you struggle to engage bank employees in your CRA program, you aren’t alone. Just like most financial institutions, Seacoast Bank used to find it hard to engage employees and spread the word about their community initiatives. ...
Continue ReadingThe information in this article came from our webinar with Linda Ezuka of CRA Today, Sue Kocsis from Pinnacle Bank, and Nick Hammerstad from Banzai. Why is financial literacy so important?Take a look at these statistics: • Worl...
Continue ReadingThe ideas in this article came from a webinar with Sarah Baharin, VP, Fair Lending/CRA Officer at North American Savings Bank, and Zina Stankewsky at PCs for People. You can access the webinar recording here. Banks and credit uni...
Continue ReadingAs a CRA officer, you know how important it is to get consideration under the CRA for as many loans, services, and investments as possible. This means that some banks like to include their consumer loans under their lending performa...
Continue ReadingHow did your last CRA exam go? Did it run perfectly smoothly? Did you hand your CRA examiners your self-assessment, shake hands, and tell them you’ll see them next exam? Probably not. Chances are it was a hectic week of pulling r...
Continue ReadingRunning a CRA program is difficult during the best of times. And when it’s time for a CRA exam, your job only gets more stressful. But when you have a clear picture of what’s expected of you, your exam can be a lot easier. In ...
Continue ReadingYour bank is steadfast in meeting the credit needs of all businesses, both large and small, in your communities. Your job is to capture and identify all eligible community development activities going into a regulatory exam. But wha...
Continue ReadingAll successful programs have support from the top, and CRA isn’t any different! It’s important to keep your bank board and executive management briefed on your CRA program. But how do you do this? According to Eric Rosengren and ...
Continue ReadingAre you ready for your next CRA exam? If you’re like most CRA professionals, preparing for a CRA exam is a never-ending process. One way to make this process a little more manageable is by creating a CRA self-assessment. Most CRA of...
Continue ReadingIf you don’t have a large CRA team, haven’t had much training, or just inherited your bank’s CRA program, you’re probably feeling a little overwhelmed. It’s hard to run a CRA program during the best of times, but it may seem impossi...
Continue ReadingThe ideas in this article came from our webinar with Janice DeLima from Norway Savings Bank. You can access the webinar recording here. Many banks are happy with a Satisfactory CRA rating. In fact, many banks don’t even try to ge...
Continue ReadingAn estimated 80% of banks underreport their community development loans. This means that 80% of banks are under-representing their CRA lending performance, which puts their CRA ratings at risk. The lending portion of the CRA exa...
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