HMDA/CRA Geocoding Services: Compliance-Grade Accuracy for Regulatory Filing
Last updated: August 20, 2026
Stop worrying about geocoding errors delaying your HMDA or CRA submission. The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) require precise geographic coding for every loan application—and regulators reject files with inaccurate census tract, county, or MSA codes. RATA's Compliance-grade geocoding delivers 95%+ accuracy so your data passes FFIEC validation the first time.
What Is Geocoding and Why Does It Matter?
Geocoding converts property addresses into the geographic codes required for regulatory submission: MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), state and county FIPS codes, and census tract codes. For example, RATA's address at 1916 Boothe Circle, Longwood, FL 32750 geocodes to:
36740 12 117 0215.04
This represents the Orlando MSA (36740), Florida (12), Seminole County (117), and our specific census tract (0215.04). Every address in your LAR needs accurate codes—errors trigger edit failures and submission delays.
What Is Compliance-Grade Geocoding?
Regulation C requires accurate HMDA data but sets no numeric accuracy floor for geocoding, so there is no published threshold to point at. Over 39 years of working with regulators, RATA defined its own Compliance-grade™ bar and publishes it, so you can hold us to it and compare it against anyone else’s:
- 95%+ accuracy for census tract assignment
- 100% completion—every address receives a geocode result
- Current-year data definitions reflecting the latest Census boundaries
- Full traceability showing which reference data produced each result
- Results that clear the FFIEC edits, with a precision code on every fallback so you can review the ones that did not reach rooftop accuracy
How that accuracy is measured, and why a match rate is not the same thing as an accuracy rate, is set out in how RATA measures geocoding accuracy.
Choose Your Geocoding Solution
RATA offers flexible options to match your institution's needs and resources:
- GeoPlus: Outsource geocoding completely—send addresses to RATA, receive 100% geocoded results in minutes
- Residual Address Matching (RAM): Handle most geocoding internally, send only unmatched addresses to RATA for resolution
- Comply Software: Geocode in-house with our desktop solution and single-address geocoder
GeoPlus: Outsource Geocoding, Keep Control of Your Data
Get 100% geocoded results without hiring geocoding staff or maintaining reference data. GeoPlus handles the complex, time-consuming work of address matching while you maintain full control over your loan data in Comply software.
How GeoPlus Works
- Export addresses from your Comply loan file(s)
- Email to RATA for processing
- Receive results in minutes—100% geocoded, Compliance-grade accuracy
- Import back to Comply and you're done
Why Institutions Choose GeoPlus
- No software to maintain—RATA handles reference data updates
- No staff training required—our geocoding experts do the work
- Flexible scheduling—submit daily, weekly, monthly, or at year-end
- Instant single-address geocoding built into Comply for immediate needs
- Volume discounts—graduated pricing for larger institutions
Full-Service Processing: Hands-Off HMDA/CRA Compliance
Send us your lending data. We handle everything else. Full-Service Processing is for institutions that want to completely outsource HMDA and CRA reporting—from data conversion through final submission to your supervisory agency.
What RATA Does for You
- Convert your data to required FFIEC submission formats
- Run all edit checks—Validity, Quality, and Syntactical edits for HMDA; Edit Validations for CRA
- Send you error reports identifying issues that need research
- Geocode all addresses to Compliance-grade standards
- Calculate rate spreads using current Treasury Tables — or check the rate spread on an individual loan yourself
- Perform proprietary validations to catch issues before submission
- Prepare transmittal documents and submission files
- Submit 100% error-free to your supervisory agency
Your Role
You only need to:
- Send loan data monthly or quarterly
- Research and correct errors RATA identifies
- Approve final submission
RATA has provided Full-Service Processing continuously since 1987—39 years of staying current with every regulatory change.
In-House, GeoPlus, or Full-Service: What Changes
These are three different products, not one service with an on/off switch. Here is what each one actually hands you.
HMDA/CRA Software
Prefer to handle compliance in-house? Comply HMDA/CRA/SBL software gives you full control with integrated geocoding, edit checking, rate spread calculation, and direct FFIEC submission.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Compliance-grade geocoding for HMDA/CRA?
Compliance-grade geocoding meets the high accuracy standards required by federal regulators for HMDA and CRA reporting. It provides 95%+ accuracy for census tract, county FIPS, and MSA code assignment, with complete results for every address and full traceability to data sources.
What is the difference between GeoPlus and Full-Service Processing?
GeoPlus provides outsourced geocoding only - you manage your data in Comply software and send addresses to RATA for geocoding. Full-Service Processing handles everything: data conversion, geocoding, edit checking, error correction, and submission to your supervisory agency.
How quickly does RATA process geocoding requests?
RATA processes GeoPlus geocoding files in minutes. You can submit files daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. There's also a single-address geocoder built into Comply software for immediate results when you need them.
How much does HMDA/CRA geocoding cost?
Pricing is volume-based with a graduated per-record rate schedule offering higher discounts for larger volumes. Contact RATA's Geocoding Services department for a customized quote based on your institution's annual record volume.
Figures on this page (95%+ geocoding accuracy, and how it is measured; 39 years in compliance software since 1987) may be republished with attribution to RATA Associates and a link to rataassociates.com.
