#57: I Bet You Are Underreporting Your Community Development Loans… Most Banks Are Too!

I estimate that at least 90% of banks under report their community development loans. Yes, that’s an alarming statistic, but I believe it's true. As I often say, the art of the CRA is not creating new programs, but actually unveiling what your bank is already doing to meet the needs of your community by the nature of opening your doors and deploying your core banking services. Recently, I have been conducting many customized bank training sessions for commercial loan officers. We use the bank’s credit approval memorandums and take a deep dive into originated loans to reveal hidden community development purposes. It’s fun! The look on their faces when they realize they originated community development loans and they didn’t even know it! It’s priceless. I also offer a follow up Q&A session where the loan officers get to review their pipeline with me and ask me anything. Again, like magic, there are more community development loan prospects on the table. Here is what a senior commercial lender shared… “Linda’s webinar provided CRA/CDL training that gave us the depth of knowledge to more accurately identify opportunities that we had been missing for years. Past trainings left us with more questions than answers. Her presentation was customized to our needs and our commercial lending team dealt with actual loans that we selected. We also had the opportunity to ask experience based questions and receive in depth answers that opened people’s eyes. Since the webinars, we have taken a deeper dive into our loan closings since our last exam and found numerous cases of economic development and affordable housing loans that had not been reported. Very well worth the time and cost that will pay dividends over the years.” ~Chuck Woerner, SVP , Senior Commercial Lender, Fairfield County BankYou don’t need me to do this training, but if you have too much on your plate, this is a good option too. Either way you approach this training, it is imperative to have a strategy in place or you will be underreporting your community development loan portfolio which compromises your lending performance and your overall CRA rating. What do you have planned to engage with your commercial lending officers? Make sure you outline a solid strategy to build these critical relationships and support them in identifying community development loans. The return on your investment of time is priceless! CRA Today helps bankers master the Community Reinvestment Act, get exam ready, and change lives through the power of community development.Want to learn the CRA basics? Sign up for CRA Essentials Live! A live webinar with Linda Ezuka that shares everything you need to create a solid foundation for your CRA journey. https://hub.cratoday.com/freewebinarReady to take a deeper dive into the CRA? Join your fellow CRA enthusiasts in the CRA Hub as we navigate regulatory change, study core CRA concepts and connect as community development professionals across the nation.https://cratoday.com/hub/CRA Today Website: https://cratoday.com/ Linda Ezuka, LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-ezuka-cra-today/Copyright © 2022 by CRA Today LLC(No claim to original U.S. government material)All rights reserved. No part of this podcast may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author and publisher.This podcast is a periodic publication of CRA Today LLC and is intended to notify and inspire recipients of new developments in the Community Reinvestment Act. It should not be construed as legal advice or legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents are intended for general informational purposes only, and you are urged to consult your own attorney concerning your situation and specific legal questions you have.