Wondering if there is anyone out there who has attended both of these in the past and would recommend one over the other? My focus is on CRA, not fair lending, so I was thinking the Conference might be better. On the other hand, because it's put on by Regulators I'm wondering how "free" people feel about speaking to actual experiences they have during exams, tracking data and just in general.

Not sure I would find value in tours of on-the-ground success stories in a big city like Denver offered at the Conference; I'm in more of a rural area in New England. Plus who wants to go to Denver in March??? If a snow storm doesn't keep me from getting there, it will certainly keep me from getting back out.

Who has been to both?

I'm curious about the interagency conference as well. I've never attended, but our EIC recommended the conference to us. I had the same thought about Denver in March!
I've attended the Colloquium once before a couple of years ago. It was a good conference and there was plenty of CRA information if you weren't looking at the fair lending aspect of it. A couple of our local regulators were in attendance as well.
Right now I'm leaning toward the conference just because if there are final changes to CRA, who better to hear it from than the regulators themselves?

Not to get political, but the Interagency conference page does reference some of the more "fringe" ideas that have popped up recently out of the San Fran Fed, namely fighting climate change and racial inequality. Not saying those aren't laudable goals, but not really in the scope of CRA, IMO.

I found both to be lack luster to be honest. When I was at one of the top banks' CRA department previously we found that these events were more tailored towards small to intermediate sized institutions. We often did not speak or ask questions at the events because not very many others were involved in the same complexities. I think the conferences where you get to sit in front of Otting are the most insightful because he often divulges tid-bits you don't hear about in the news.

@TMatt87 I think that those topics you speak of are not "political," but rather realities of a community dynamic. Activities that address climate change, or racial inequality are qualitative elements that speak to how our activities meet the community credit needs. I have taken credit for loans that were used by water districts to raise a levee system to address the risk of rising ocean levels in preparation for climate change to protect the loss of life and property for the 12 low-income census tracts that surrounded the levee itself.

Moreover, even though racial discrimination is outside of the scope of CRA it is not outside of the scope in terms of disparity between incomes of racial groups. Providing community services that support systematic change to elevate cultural groups out of an LMI circumstance in all terms is Community Development.

My personal preference is CBA Live. The Community Reinvestment track also offers good content, and there are parallel tracks for for Fair and Responsible Banking and other compliance and risk topics.

Reviving this thread. Anyone going to the Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference? I've never been to this one, and just not sure if it's worth the time for bankers, especially with the CRA proposals still out for comment.

I went to the one in Miami in 2018 and it was not worth it in my opinion. Some of the speakers turned political, and if I cold have easily exited, I would have. Perhaps it was meant for large banks, not for me as the CRA officer of a $500 million bank.

I decided to give it a try this year.

I've been to both. They're very different in content. I prefer the Interagency to the Colloquium because the Colloquium seems more targeted at newbies.