Overview

RPM CRA 2024 combines Census Tract geography for the U.S. (July 2023) defined by CRA income category as provided by the Federal Financial Institutions Exam Council, with RPM's proprietary measures of Unbanked Households, Household Resiliency, and Credit Card Line Utilization. It allows users to export the data in a variety of formats for easy integration with information systems.  CRA Map 2024 covers Low, Moderate, Middle and High income, as well as Distressed and Underserved areas.  Also included is the RPM Unbanked index, an estimate of households lacking access to the primary banking system; the Household Resiliency Index, the ability of households ina tract to withstand a financial shock; and an estimate of Credit Card Line Utilization, to help understand the degree to which households in a tract are using (and "maxing out") their credit lines.

CRA - The Community Reinvestment Act

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) encourages depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate - including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, distressed middle income neighborhoods, and underserved rural areas - consistent with safe and sound banking operations.

The CRA requires that each insured depository institution's record in helping meet the credit needs of its entire community be evaluated periodically. That record is taken into account in considering an institution's application to its regulator for deposit facilities, including mergers and acquisitions.  CRA examinations are conducted by the federal agencies that are responsible for supervising depository institutions: the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). 

RPM CRA 2024 contains a current database of every Census Tract in the U.S., with its status noted as a Low, Moderate, Middle, or High-income area, based on the relationship of the tract income to the MSA in which it is situated; or, for non-MSA areas, to the County in which it is located.

Low income, Less than 50% of MSA or County income

Moderate income, 50% to 79% of MSA or County income

Middle income, 80% to 119% of MSA or County income

High income, 120% of MSA or County income or higher.

Additionally, some Middle income tracts are designated as Distressed or Underserved areas, and these are updated annually by the FFIEC every July.  Included as Distressed or Underserved are Rural Underserved Areas, Population Loss areas, Poverty areas, and/or High Unemployment areas.

Also, a few Census tract number designations have changed, been re-assigned, or combined with other tracts since the 2010 Census.  The last of these re-assignments by the FFIEC was in 2017, primarily affecting a few tracts in Syracuse NY and Tuscon AZ.  Also, counties in Connecticut have changed in 2022 to county-equivalent planning regions.

Using RPM CRA 2024, a Bank can determine what proportion of its loans and deposits are distributed among each Income area, for each of its branches and communities - wherever the bank takes deposits and/or makes loans.  

For a bank branch to be considered to be located in a Low, Moderate, Distressed or Underserved area, the branch must be located “Near To” such an area, considered to be ½ of a mile.  These locations are especially "CRA-sensitive". 

For more information about the CRA, please see the website of the Federal Financial institutions Exam Council at https://www.ffiec.gov/cra/. 

RPM Unbanked

Unbanked is part of RPM's MarketBank™ family of predictive models describing financial services usage and potential, based upon multiple data and research sources, including the most recent FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, the American Community Survey (ACS), and selected Census data.

The MarketBank™ Unbanked model estimates the likelihood of a household to lack both a savings and checking account with a bank, thrift or credit union.  Results are estimated at the Census Block Group level, and provide communities, bankers, regulators, and industry analysts a below-Census-Tract level view of access to the first-tier financial system.  Unbanked scores range from 0 in higher income communities, to a high of 465 in lower income, distressed and/or underserved neighborhoods.  A score of 100 is average for the U.S., and a score of 200, for example, represents a tract where residents are twice as likely to be Unbanked.

Unbanked helps banks to better understand neighborhoods that lack access to banking and credit, in order to improve such access.  It is especially helpful in determining neighborhoods that are the best place to begin improving access for Unbanked households.  These are the sub-neighborhood areas that have relatively high demand and potential for deposit and loan services, and also have potential for non-branch delivery systems. 

Banking regulators, examiners, analysts and the media use Unbanked to identify relatively Unbanked neighborhoods and households, and begin the process of providing them access to the first-tier financial system based on their particular needs, so that they might avoid a dependency on second tier services, including and particularly predatory lenders. 

Community organizations and citizens use Unbanked to become more aware of the issue of who is outside the first-tier system, where Unbanked households live, and where to begin analysis and ultimately, advocacy - within a neighborhood. 

Most of all, Unbanked establishes a community and a collaboration among all stakeholders to begin actively extending basic banking services to all American families and households. 

Leveraging the ArcGIS ecosystem, Unbanked can be readily integrated with existing customer, community, business and economic data to create powerful, rapidly developed, rich and focused solutions. 

RPM Household Resiliency Index (HRI)

How prepared is your family for a sudden financial shock?  Also based on Fed studies, the HRI describes the ability of a household to withstand a financial shock, such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  A score of 100 is the U.S. average.

Credit Card Line Utilization

A part of RPM's MarketBank product usage and potential dataset, Credit Card Line Utilization describes the extent to which households use their credit cards.  Again, a score of 100 is the U.S. average.

RPM CRA 2024 File Layout

Field Name                                                           Description

GEOID                                                                   Combined FIPS Code

STATE_ABBV                                                        State abbreviation

COUNTYNAME                                                     County name

STATE_NAME                                                        State name

YEAR                                                                     Data vintage

MSA_MD                                                                MSA/MD Code

STATEFIPS                                                             State FIPS Code

COUNTYFIPS                                                        County FIPS Code

TRACT                                                                   Census Tract FIPS Code

PRIN_CITY                                                            Principal city status

SMALLCNTY                                                         Small county status

SPLIT                                                                     Split tract flag

DEMOG_FLAG                                                     Demographic data flag

URBN_RURAL                                                      Urban/Rural Status

MSAMEDFINC                                                      MSA Median Family Income

MSAMEDHINC                                                      MSA Median Household Income

INCOME_PCT                                                       Tract Income percent of Median amily income

FFIEC_EST                                                            FFIEC Estimated MSA/MD median family income

INCOMELVL                                                          Census tract income level (1=low, 2=moderate, 3=middle, 4=high)

POVERTY                                                              "X" if tract meets poverty criteria

UNEMPLOYMT                                                      "X" if tract meets high unemployment criteria

DISTRESSED                                                         "X" if tract meets distressed area criteria

RURAL                                                                    "X" if tract meets remote/rural criteria

PREV_DISTR                                                         Previous year CRA distressed criteria. 'X' - Yes , ' ' (blank space) - No

PREV_UNSRV                                                      Previous year CRA underserved criterion. 'X' - Yes , ' ' (blank space) - No

          Meets at least one of current or previous year's                  CRA

PREV_DORU                                                    distressed/underserved tract criteria? 'X' - Yes, ' ' (blank space) - No

POP                                                                    Total persons

FAMILIES                                                            Total families

HOUSEHOLDS                                                    Total households

HASDATA                                                             Contains population data

National index of unbanked households (US Avg =100)

NOBANKIDX                                           Household economic resiliency index 

GEOID                                                    Combined FIPS Code

STATE_ABBV                                         State abbreviation

COUNTYNAME                                      County name

STATE_NAME                                         State name

YEAR                                                       Data vintage

MSA_MD                                                  MSA/MD Code

STATEFIPS                                              State FIPS Code

COUNTYFIPS                                          County FIPS Code

TRACT                                                      Census Tract FIPS Code

PRIN_CITY                                                Principal city status

SMALLCNTY                                             Small county status

SPLIT                                                         Split tract flag

DEMOG_FLAG                                          Demographic data flag

URBN_RURAL                                           Urban/Rural Status

MSAMEDFINC                                           MSA Median Family Income

MSAMEDHINC                                           MSA Median Household Income

INCOME_PCT                                            Tract Income percent of Median amily income

FFIEC_EST                                                  FFIEC Estimated MSA/MD median family income

INCOMELVL                                                 Census tract income level (1=low, 2=moderate, 3=middle, 4=high)

POVERTY                                                     "X" if tract meets poverty criteria

UNEMPLOYMT                                              "X" if tract meets high unemployment criteria

DISTRESSED                                                 "X" if tract meets distressed area criteria

RURAL                                                            "X" if tract meets remote/rural criteria

PREV_DISTR                                                   Previous year CRA distressed criteria. 'X' - Yes , ' ' (blank space) - No

PREV_UNSRV                                                  Previous year CRA underserved criterion. 'X' - Yes , ' ' (blank space) - No

            Meets at least one of current or previous year's                  CRA

PREV_DORU                                                       distressed/underserved tract criteria? 'X' - Yes, ' ' (blank space) - No

POP                                                                       Total persons

FAMILIES                                                               Total families

HOUSEHOLDS                                                      Total households

HASDATA                                                              Contains population data

NOBANKIDX                                                         National index of unbanked households (US Avg - 100)

HH_RESIDX                                                     Household economic resiliency index (US Avg - 100)

NOBANKPEN                                                       Percentage of households estimated to be unbanked (US Avg - 100) 

INCOMEDESC                                                      Census tract income level description (low, moderate, middle, high)