Maptitude: A GIS Software Solution for Banking

FIGURE 1:This map of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) loan data for the Chicago area shows census tracts shaded by the average loan application amount. The pie charts on each tract are scaled by the number of loan applications, and show the portions of loans that were originated and denied.

FIGURE 2: By examining your branch locations, the locations of competitors, and demographic characteristics, you can identify areas worthy of expansion or determine market share.

FIGURE 3: The ZIP Codes shown in this map contain a color theme of the number of mortgage refinances and the bar charts show the monthly mortgage costs for all owner-occupied housing units. ZIP Codes with the highest market potential have been highlighted.

FIGURE 4:This map highlights all of the customers who are within 2 miles of new bank branches. You can create mailing labels of these customers to use with a direct mail campaign to inform them of their new options.

Maptitude is the ideal mapping software for use within the banking industry. GIS is a critical tool in today's banking environment, where there is increased competition both from existing and new banks, as well as from new companies such as Internet and phone banks, and from retail-based incursions into traditional financial markets.

Maptitude provides those in the banking and financial industry with the geographical tools to obtain the answers to compete effectively, and to ensure compliance and customer service levels.

Maptitude provides powerful spatial tools for:

• Regulatory compliance
• Bank and ATM site analysis
• Bank network competitiveness/optimization
• Customer management, identification, and targeting
• Direct mail
• Auditing
• Web-based solutions

Regulatory Compliance

GIS is critical in enabling banks to comply with government requirements such as the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. You can use your own lending data with Maptitude to create CRA maps that verify HMDA compliance and non-discriminatory lending practices.

In addition, Caliper offers HMDA datasets that contain records for all the loan applications processed by every financial institution required to file by HMDA. These data are available for every year from 1990-2002 thus allowing time series analysis, and are also available as a geographic layer aggregated by Census Tract (See Figure 1).

Site Analysis

Using Maptitude you can visually simplify the weighing of the pros and cons of different sites for branches and ATMs. You can pinpoint where your customers, facilities, and competitors are with powerful address locating and database management and query tools (See Figure 2). You can then examine the demographic characteristics of your customers with the included Census data. Provided with this knowledge you can identify underserved areas, analyze your competitor's market, and create an acceptable branch and ATM network.

Customize Your Message to a Targeted Audience

Use your own data, the Census demographic data, or the HMDA data to identify the market areas, communities, or ZIP Codes that have particular characteristics so you can target your marketing efforts.

For example, you can identify ZIP Codes with high mortgage costs to target an advertising campaign about your refinancing mortgage programs (See Figure 3), or find the customers who are within several miles of a new branch or ATM location for a specialized mailing to inform them about their new banking options (See Figure 4).

The Data You Need

In addition to the extensive Census data included with Maptitude that covers economic, housing, social, and demographic variables, there are many additional datasets available from Caliper. These include:

• Community Reinvestment Act compliance results
• Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Loan Application Register (LAR) Raw Data

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