State-chartered credit unions in Massachusetts have an added regulatory burden: complying with the Community Reinvestment Act. Align Credit Union has found a way to lighten that load.
The Lowell, Mass.-based CU is using QuestSoft's Compliance Relief software to cut down the amount of time it had been spending to compile and analyze CRA reports and data by almost one-third according to Jim Sullivan, Align's vice president of community development and CRA officer.
"Meeting our compliance demands for CRA is 30% quicker than under our old system," Sullivan said. "The biggest time savings come from the more advanced data importing. Our old system required a lot of manual tinkering to ensure the data could be analyzed and QuestSoft can recognize the data in its original format, eliminating the need to convert and re-enter data."
A secondary advantage — and one that CUs in other states can benefit from, too — is the software also contains advanced geocoding and mapping tools, which allow the $600 million CU to better analyze its service area and make strategic decisions about branch and ATM locations following acquisitions.
"We've acquired two other credit unions in the past year," Sullivan said. "With Compliance RELIEF, we can look at where the membership lives and works. What areas are overserved or underserved? Are the communities appropriately served by ATM coverage?"
The maps produced by the solution are simple to produce, according to Sullivan, making it easier to test different scenarios related to branch, ATM and acquisition strategy (as well as the impact to CRA performance).
Sullivan also likes the accuracy of the data imports, noting that in tests against the FFIEC database, so far there have been no inaccuracies. In addition to real-estate loan analysis, the software supports consumer loans and helps Align demonstrate how auto, personal and business loans support its commitment to an assessment area.
"To me, data is data," Sullivan noted. "In the CU world we wear so many hats so when you can find a way to shift data and print it out on a map and create a really beautiful map—that goes a long way, especially with our examiners."
The software "really lets us know where we're at before the examiners even get in here," he added.
