We are preparing to submit our required CRA data. Our assessment area from 2002 is correct but when we upload data for 2003 it's coming up "MA/State/County does not equal a valid combination." Any suggestions ???

Many of the census tracts in our area changed in 2003. This may your problem if you are using 2002 census tracts.

Also check some of the individual records that are shown to have this error message and see if your import file entered 0 or 9999 in the MA field. If the record is not in an MA, and the MA field is blank in the file you inported this could have occurred. The fix is entry of "NA" in this field for all records not in an MA.

The validity error is telling you that if the metropolitan area (MA) number does not equal NA then the MA, state and county codes must equal a valid combination outside a MA, i.e., your MA, county and census tract don't go together and you need to figure out why. Run a error report to find out how many bad combinations you have out there and scrub the data again. Also make sure that you have set up your Assessment Areas correctly. If you need help with setting up Assessment Areas, go out to the FFIEC CRA site and click on "how to file." If all else fails, contact the CRA Assistance Line at 202-872-7584.