Sterling Bank & Trust honored at 26th Annual CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium

Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions has named Sterling Bank & Trust, FSB, the wholly owned subsidiary of Sterling Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBT) as the winner of its 2022 Community Impact Award. The announcement was made at the company’s 26th annual CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium held Nov. 13-16 at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. The award honors financial institutions for the breadth and innovative application of community development programs to benefit low- and middle-income communities in which they conduct business.

Sterling was recognized for its development of a “Tenancy-in-Common” program in its California branches that promotes affordable homeownership, offering “fractional” loans for low- and middle-income as well as first-time home buyers.

“It’s no secret that California residential real estate is among the most expensive in the nation, where rental rates in prime areas have been soaring for years—and the cost of homeownership overall continues to climb, eluding many. This dynamic makes homeownership particularly challenging for lower- and middle-income home buyers,” said Adey Tesfaye, Senior Vice President & CRA Officer, Sterling Bank & Trust. “While tenancy in common arrangements aren’t a new idea—a form of co-ownership among two or more homeowners— Sterling began offering TIC financing in Southern California last year following our successful TIC financing rollout in the greater San Francisco area. We have been thrilled by the positive response our program has generated.”

Contrary to most TIC financing programs, which typically involve family members or close friends, Sterling’s TIC program emphasizes educational seminars to help make prospective homebuyers comfortable with its fractional loan financing approach for multi-party home ownership arrangements. Using the TIC loan product, Sterling closed more than 400 residential loans with loan amounts ranging from $52,000 to $400,000 with an average loan amount of $298,000. Sterling’s innovative TIC program enabled more than 400 families to afford and achieve their dreams of becoming homeowners.

“In today’s economic climate, the creative financing option provided by Sterling Bank is providing a pathway for individuals who would otherwise find achieving homeownership extremely challenging,” said Steve Meirink, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions. “We were impressed by Sterling’s innovative 'crawl-walk-run approach' in helping so many families achieve homeownership through this TIC financing option and are honored to acknowledge their achievement to helping those in particular need achieve their homeownership dreams.”

Sponsors of the 2022 Colloquium include the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America. For more information, please visit Wolters Kluwer’s CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium website.

Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions is a market leader and trusted provider of risk management and regulatory compliance solutions and services to U.S. banks and credit unions, insurers and securities firms. The business, which sits within Wolters Kluwer’s Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) division, helps these financial institutions efficiently manage risk and regulatory compliance obligations, and gain the insights needed to focus on better serving their customers and growing their business. Compliance Solutions’ CRA Wiz and Fair Lending Wiz help financial institutions manage cost and risks while managing their CRA and fair lending compliance obligations.

About Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk & Compliance

Governance, Risk & Compliance is a division of Wolters Kluwer, which provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to help ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, and produce better business outcomes. GRC offers a portfolio of technology-enabled expert services and solutions focused on legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and banking regulatory compliance.

Wolters Kluwer (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2021 annual revenues of €4.8 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,800 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

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