First Financial Bank Success Story

The Solution

First Financial wanted a solution that would help it review information from across its large footprint, delivering data-driven insights that reveal how well the bank is serving its Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) assessment areas—including low- to moderate-income census tracts—while uncovering new opportunities. 

The bank found what it needed in CRA Analytics for Nlending, a secure, web-based analytics software that enables banks to measure and manage CRA performance to ensure CRA compliance. 

From determining reinvestment ratios and their significance for exam-readiness to staying current with the changing demographics of its assessment area, the software helps First Financial monitor CRA compliance, assist with exam preparation, reduce the reporting burden, and gain insights about marketing and sales opportunities. More than 10 different users are aligned through their work on the platform. 

After modeling the bank’s board-approved assessment area, Ncontracts reviews the data for quality, imports it into the platform, and ensures that everything is ready for analysis. CRA Analytics then crunches the numbers, and a compliance analyst reviews the geocoded maps and analysis reports to get a sense for the story the data tells and performs a final round of quality checks. 

Based on the analysis, First Financial works with Ncontracts to identify areas of focus for the future. The team can create assessment areas, understand lending data in low- to moderate-income and majority-minority census tracts, dive into small business and small farm lending, and geocode loans and deposits on interactive maps.

The Result

Save time and energy. “CRA Analytics is absolutely time-saving! There’s no way that a team of people could go through and review all the data that needs to be looked at without it.” 

Improved data quality. “It reduced the potential for errors. With spreadsheets and Excel, formulas can get mixed up. That doesn’t happen with CRA Analytics software.” 

Easier CRA exams. First Financial uses the feature during CRA exams to explain the story their data tells, answer regulator questions, and explore risk. “When the Federal Reserve raised questions in our CRA exam, we used the platform to validate our CRA data and activities.” 

Deeper insight into assessment areas. First Financial has the ability to dive deep into its data and identify risks across a large market area. “We use CRA Analytics to determine how well we are serving all of our assessment areas.” 

More insight into merger activity. First Financial relied on CRA Analytics when finalizing a merger, using the software to analyze each institution’s data for risks both individually and in aggregate. “It was awesome to put both data sets into the software to get the combined view during the merger!” 

Generate new marketing and sales opportunities. The analysis provided by CRA feature for Nlending helps uncover opportunities and competitive advantages versus peers.