Introduction to Bank CRA in ProLinkAIM
Bank CRA tracks and manages a specific bank's Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) allocations. The CRA requires banks to invest in the communities where they have branches (with deposits). The Federal Reserve periodically examines banks to determine whether their investment in their communities is relative to the deposits they hold there. Each dollar invested into the community by the bank can be allocated—or assigned—to the bank as counting toward the bank's required investment. The bank can also be allocated investment dollars made by bank entities.
Each exam period in ProLinkAIM defines the date range of an examination to determine the bank's compliance with CRA. It also includes a list of assessment areas that are being examined for the period. The boundary of each assessment area is determined by the list of counties that make up the assessment area. Assessment areas each have their own investment targets based on the amount of deposits the bank holds in the area.
For the bank, CRA allocations can be made from both equity and debt investments. Only debt created by the bank entity is eligible to be allocated to the bank. Allocations of debt and equity are tracked separately and are made on a per assessment area basis.
You will create CRA assessment areas outside of the exam period and then associate them to specific exam periods as needed. We recommend creating your assessment areas before creating your exam periods so that the information you need is available.
Create the assessment area in CRA Admin.
Create the Exam Period in Bank CRA, and then add the assessment area(s).
Allocate equity/allocate debt to an Exam Period Assessment Area.