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Executive Summary

GeoDataVision, a banking compliance consulting firm based in Connecticut, helps financial institutions map and analyze their Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) assessment areas and fair lending data. As the firm's client base grew to hundreds of banks nationwide, it needed a more efficient way to integrate disparate demographic and lending datasets and to visualize risk exposure across different communities. GeoDataVision turned to Caliper Corporation's Maptitude GIS software to simplify this process. Over the past two decades, they have created maps for 600–700 banks using Maptitude, leveraging its powerful built-in data and analysis tools to identify underserved areas and compliance gaps. By adopting Maptitude Online for cloud-based map sharing, GeoDataVision can now collaboratively publish interactive maps for clients and regulators, making it much easier to assess and demonstrate compliance in real time. This GIS-driven approach has streamlined regulatory analysis and even impressed bank examiners with the clarity of GeoDataVision's maps.

Business Challenge: Ensuring CRA & Fair Lending Compliance

Banks are required by law to serve the credit needs of all communities where they operate, including low- and moderate-income and majority-minority neighborhoods. For GeoDataVision's clients, this meant delineating CRA assessment areas accurately and analyzing a wealth of data (branch locations, loan records, Census demographics, competitor presence) to identify any underserved or high-risk areas. Traditionally, assembling these maps and reports was labor-intensive and cumbersome, often involving multiple software tools or static maps that were hard to update. GeoDataVision faced the challenge of making this process both comprehensive and efficient. They needed to integrate regulatory datasets (such as FFIEC Census tract data) with mapping in one place, and to do so in a way that could be easily understood by bank executives and examiners. Additionally, as GeoDataVision began serving hundreds of banks across the country, sharing the resulting maps and analyses with clients and regulators became a logistical challenge. The firm required a solution that would allow collaboration and real-time access to maps, so that both bank teams and regulators could view and interact with the latest compliance insights without cumbersome coordination.

The Solution

Caliper Corporation provided Maptitude as the one-stop GIS solution for GeoDataVision's needs. Maptitude allowed GeoDataVision to unify all relevant location-based data and produce clear, actionable maps for compliance. In particular, Maptitude enabled GeoDataVision to achieve several key objectives:

1. Consolidate Compliance Data: Import and map critical banking datasets (including branch locations, loan and customer data, and demographic information) in a single platform. Maptitude comes with extensive built-in data (e.g. FFIEC Census demographics for CRA/HMDA) that GeoDataVision previously had to gather separately. This integration provided a holistic view of each bank’s footprint, making it easier to spot gaps in service coverage.
2. Identify & Visualize Risk Areas: Create thematic maps and analyses to highlight underserved or high-risk areas. For example, GeoDataVision uses Maptitude to map majority-minority census tracts and low/moderate-income neighborhoods within a bank’s assessment area. They also leverage Maptitude mapping software's drive-time ring analysis to delineate realistic service areas around branches, which helps reveal whether certain communities fall outside a reasonable service radius. These visualizations make it easy for banks to recognize compliance issues (such as lending gaps or service overlaps) at a glance.
3. Share Interactive Maps with Stakeholders: Take advantage of Maptitude Online to publish and share maps in the cloud. GeoDataVision can grant secure access to interactive maps for client bank teams or regulators, allowing them to zoom in on areas of interest, toggle layers (e.g. income class, minority percentage), and even download reports. This capability transformed a once static reporting process into a collaborative, real-time experience, ensuring that everyone from bank executives to examiners can explore the data firsthand. GeoDataVision's published maps (e.g. national CRA maps of Majority-Minority Tracts, Income Classes, or Metropolitan Statistical Areas) have garnered tremendous response, with even regulatory officials regularly visiting the online maps for insights.

Results & Benefits

By implementing Maptitude, GeoDataVision significantly streamlined its compliance mapping workflow. What once required piecing together data from various sources now happens within one GIS environment, saving time and reducing errors. The firm has efficiently produced maps and analyses for hundreds of banks without needing a large technical staff: a testament to Maptitude mapping software's ease of use and automation features. Complex analyses, such as evaluating each branch's practical service area using drive-time polygons, can be done in minutes. Notably, when GeoDataVision began using drive-time rings to define branch service areas, "the regulators were really impressed," according to GeoDataVision's president, Len Suzio. The maps clearly demonstrated how far each branch reaches and whether any populated areas were left outside those reach, providing regulators with a new level of insight into the bank's coverage.

Another major benefit has been improved communication and transparency. The interactive maps shared via Maptitude Online have enabled a new level of engagement. Bank management and compliance officers can now visually confirm that their CRA assessment areas include all the required neighborhoods, and they can quickly identify any outliers or anomalies in lending patterns. GeoDataVision reports that the response to these online maps has been overwhelmingly positive, in Len Suzio's words, "tremendous." Clients appreciate the ability to drill down into their own data geographically, and regulators appreciate the easy access to up-to-date maps showing compliance metrics. In fact, some examiners proactively consult GeoDataVision's published maps during their reviews, a strong indication of trust in the information being presented.

Ultimately, Maptitude has helped GeoDataVision's client banks proactively meet their CRA and fair lending obligations. By readily identifying underserved tracts or potential compliance issues on the map, banks can address these areas before they become findings in an exam. The GIS-based approach also adds credibility to the banks' compliance programs: presenting examiners with detailed, data-backed maps demonstrates a high level of diligence and transparency. This not only facilitates smoother exams but also helps banks direct their community outreach and lending efforts more effectively (for example, by pinpointing neighborhoods that would benefit from increased marketing or a new branch). For GeoDataVision, the ability to deliver such insights at scale has reinforced its reputation as an industry leader in compliance consulting.

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