All The Tools You Need To Master  Community Reinvestment Act Compliance

At a Special Price 

Train new staff, refresh knowledge, get questions answered, use our hyperlinked FFIEC CRA Q and A, and much more!

CRA University has been created to bring you the training and support that is missing in CRA compliance. 

CRA U addresses the basics as well as advanced topics, plus a private Q&A forum to get your questions answered.

This educational membership group provides training, resources and consulting. The cost is kept affordable by providing these resources on a group basis, while responding to your specific questions and concerns in the Q & A Forum.

Topics include all aspects of Community Reinvestment Act compliance, from small, intermediate small and large bank views as well as special purpose banks.

CRA is all about understanding what is needed and planning for success on an ongoing basis rather than trying to plug holes right before an examination.  CRA University will help you to acomplish this.

CRA University has been developed by Kathleen O. Blanchard, who also created The HMDA Academy.  Kathleen has over 30 years in banking, with many years of CRA experience.

Join at a special rate while CRA U is being built and receive a discounted annual rate that you will keep as long as CRA University is around! 

We delayed implementation and enrollments while waiting to see what direction the 3 federal regulators were going to take CRA.  Things look more hopeful now so we are moving forward.

The forum is open and ready for your questions, downloads have been added and assessment area training is available.  More resources are being created and will be added  on an ongoing basis.

You can ask questions on any CRA topic in the forum. Compare notes with other members on what has worked or not worked for you.  This forum is totally private.

Let us know what training topics are most important for you.

Last but not least we will follow the CRA Modernization efforts PLUS the small business loan reporting that is coming under Regulation B so that we can compare with CRA reporting and examinations and discuss the differences as well as ways to simplify this coming responsibility. 

Learning Objectives of CRA University

Assessment Areas:  Establishing assessment areas is the foundation of CRA compliance.  This class will review how to determine the appropriate assessment area, what areas can and cannot be included, and ongoing monitoring to determine needed changes, when changes can be made, and how to work with “Reasonably Expected Market Areas” (and what they are).

Small Business and Small Farm Reporting: How to identify these loans and how to determine the correct gross annual revenue. What is required if the bank does not make small business or small farm loans?

CRA FAQs and Other Resources:  What are the FAQs, where to find them and how to use them. The FAQs are a required document for CRA success. What other resources are available – the regulators all publish information that is useful for any bank of any size.

Community Development Loans, Services and Investments: How to determine if a loan, service or investment qualifies as community development, and how to describe them to get proper credit.

Determining Credit  and Other Community Needs: An important point in CRA examinations is whether the bank is making an effort to meet the credit and product and service needs of its communities – what does this mean, how can a bank judge it performance in this area, what areas of the bank can provide information to help those responsible for CRA assess the bank’s actions and create a plan to address shortcomings.

Performance Contexts: What are they, how to gather the information and present it in an effective report. Most of the content is information already at hand; the performance context is a matter of pulling existing information together to support the bank’s performance (and perhaps identify shortcomings that can be addressed before future examinations).

Examination & Audit Preparation & Periodic Internal Assessments: Describing products and services, analyzing loans and presenting them in an examination.

Planning for the next level of CRA compliance as your bank’s assets increase:  Small banks and intermediate small banks need to think ahead to be ready for the next level before they get there.

Strategic Plans: Is your bank considering a strategic plan? Topics will include what to consider, how to plan, and how to request approval.\

CRA Q and A: Finding your way around this valuable document.  The resources of CRA U include a hyperlinked version of this valuable document.

Future changes: What is being discussed for potential changes to CRA? A formal proposal to update CRA has not be published, but a great deal of discussion is going on. What is being talked about and what would potential changes mean to existing CRA programs?

What is Happening with Reg B Small Business Data Collection: CRA University will follow as proposals are published and a final rule issued.