The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s (FFIEC) website is offering the latest version of software designed by the Federal Reserve to help automate the process of filing data required by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).
The free software, “CRA Data Entry Software v. 2017 R.2,” includes editing features designed to help with the process of verifying and analyzing data accuracy. The software offers details on how to submit data files created using its functions.
The FFIEC’s website includes a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the software, including where to download the latest version, what information can be filed through the software and other information pertaining to its use and compatibility.
The FAQ also addresses questions about retaining data entered and saved in a previous version, and exporting it to the latest version.
“Downloading and installing a new release of the FFIEC CRA Data Entry software will not delete, erase, or override any data that your institution may have previously inputted and saved to a previous release of the software,” the FAQ states. “In addition, it is not necessary to uninstall the current release of the FFIEC CRA Data Entry Software prior to downloading the updated one. The new release will capture any data that you previously entered in a previous release. However, institutions should always use the ‘Export for Other Purposes’ option in the FFIEC CRA Data Entry Software to create a backup copy of the data, and save it to a network drive or any accessible location. When a new release of the FFIEC CRA software is made available, users who downloaded a previous release of the software for any reporting year should also download the new release for the current year of reporting.”
The FAQ also notes that it is important to backup any data file entered into the system by saving it to a network drive or a disk.
“If your hard drive crashes, you can always download another copy of the software and import the saved data file into the program,” the FAQ states.