WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Bankers Association recently
released a free, members-only resource to assist bankers with their continued
compliance with fair lending laws.

Officials highlighted the Toolbox on Fair Lending is
intended to provide practical examples, how-to's and templates for bankers to
use when reviewing compliance and preparing for fair lending exams.

The Toolbox on Fair Lending was produced exclusively for ABA
members, and the association stressed the resource is scalable to financial
institutions of all sizes, complexities and organizational structures.

Official contend this resource, an update from ABA's first
fair lending toolbox released in the early 1990s, will help institutions review
the systems they have in place to continue their strong record of compliance
and help document the performance the regulators expect.

The toolbox includes resources on:

—Ensuring the board's role in compliance
—Understanding legal fundamentals
—Implementing and updating risk assessments and compliance programs
—Conducting file analysis and second reviews
—Preparing for and handling a fair lending exam

 "A number of cases
brought recently by the Justice Department have made some banks anxious to know
if their fair lending compliance programs are keeping pace with the latest
legal interpretations," said ABA chairman Albert Kelly.

"The goal of this toolbox is to help ensure that your
institution is in sync with examiner expectations so that you get the sort of
compliance credit you deserve," Kelly added.

This toolbox is one of more than a dozen such resources
available free for ABA members. The other toolboxes, covering topics including
liquidity, telling your bank's story and records management, are all available
on www.aba.com.