Bank OZK BRAVE Mandate: 60-Day Adoption Snapshot

What we can actually verify

The Bank OZK BRAVE mandate has been live since March 15, 2026. Sixty-eight days later, a lot of commentary about BRAVE adoption is downstream of two primary sources: usebrave.org (the public-facing validator and bank list) and Valcre's BRAVE knowledge base (the standard's author).

This post sticks to what those two sources publicly state, verified on May 22, 2026. Everything in the chart below links back to the page it came from.

What each source actually says

Bank OZK — required. Valcre's BRAVE FAQ for Banks names Bank OZK as “required starting March 15, 2026” in its “Which banks are using BRAVE today?” section. Valcre's BRAVE Rollout Guide for Banks cites Bank OZK as an example of the “big-bang” rollout pattern (“effective March 15, BRAVE is required”).

Supporting banks — 25. The public BRAVE site at usebrave.org lists 25 banks under “Banks supporting BRAVE.” None of these carry a published hard-requirement date. They include national, super-regional, and community-bank logos.

Beyond banks — 47 firms publicly, 300+ per Valcre. UseBRAVE displays logos for 47 appraisal firms under “BRAVE-Ready Organizations.” Valcre's bank FAQ separately states that “300+ appraisal firms are ready to start delivering BRAVE,” which implies the public list is a subset of an internally tracked total.

The public adoption picture

Public adoption snapshot

BRAVE is moving from first mandate to broader bank support

Verified Jun 1, 2026

Bank OZK

Required

Bank OZK is the public benchmark for a hard BRAVE requirement. Valcre's bank FAQ and rollout guide cite March 15, 2026 as the start date for Bank OZK's BRAVE requirement.

Source: Valcre bank FAQ

Supporting banks

25 listed by UseBRAVE

UseBRAVE publicly lists 25 banks beyond the early Bank OZK mandate, alongside 300+ appraisal firms cited by Valcre as ready to deliver BRAVE files.

Source: usebrave.org

Banks publicly listed as supporting BRAVE

Ameris BankAssociated BankBank of HawaiiBank of HopeBank of MissouriBankUnitedBECUCapital OneChase BankCitizens BankFirst Citizens BankFirst Horizon BankFirst United BankFrost BankHancock WhitneyHuntington BankMidFirst BankSouthState BankTD BankUnited Community BankUS BankWashington TrustWestern Alliance BankWoodforest BankWSFS Bank

For community banks, the practical takeaway is not "boil the ocean." Start with a pilot, validate incoming XLSX/CSV files before review, and update engagement letters once your team has tested the import workflow.

What Valcre publicly cites as the upside

Valcre's bank FAQ is the primary source for the most-repeated BRAVE stats. The two that hold up to direct quotation:

• Review-team time per appraisal. Valcre states BRAVE eliminates “30-60 minutes per appraisal” of manual data entry on the bank-review side.
• Annual labor savings. Valcre cites “300+ hours and $25K-$50K in labor costs” as the annual savings for a bank that adopts BRAVE.

Bank OZK's own public numbers around its mandate aren't in either of those FAQs — anything specific to OZK volume or rejection rates that you see circulating is a third-party estimate, not a primary-source figure. Treat it accordingly.

What is still ambiguous after 60 days

The honest read of the public record:

1. Only one bank has a publicly stated hard requirement date. That's Bank OZK. Every other bank on the UseBRAVE list is “supporting” — they accept BRAVE files, but don't publicly commit to rejecting non-BRAVE submissions on a specific date.
2. “Q2 2026 and beyond” is the only forward-looking commitment. Valcre's FAQ says “multiple regional banks (requiring Q2 2026 and beyond)” — without naming them publicly. Q2 2026 ends June 30, 2026, so this language is increasingly close to its expiration.
3. The public firm list (47) and Valcre's cited figure (300+) don't reconcile. Both can be true if “ready” means “has the software capability via Valcre” and “publicly listed” means “opted into the UseBRAVE logo wall.” If you're an appraiser evaluating who's actually delivering BRAVE, treat the smaller public list as the verifiable floor.

What appraisers and banks should do right now

• Appraisers. Confirm BRAVE-delivery language in each engagement letter, not just for Bank OZK. The UseBRAVE list is the practical “who might ask next” checklist — every name on it has at least signed up to receive BRAVE files.
• Banks not on the list. Valcre's Rollout Guide for Banks outlines three rollout patterns: a 4-6 week “big bang” (Bank OZK's pattern), an 8-12 week phased approach, and a 10-16 week segmented approach. The right answer depends on panel-firm readiness — i.e., how many of your appraisers are already on the public UseBRAVE list.
• Appraisal-data consumers. Whether you're building underwriting workflows, comp databases, or portfolio analytics, treat May 2026 as the moment to assume incoming appraisals carry structured BRAVE alongside the PDF. Backfilling old PDFs into BRAVE is a separate problem from accepting new ones.

Method & sources

Every count and date in this post was reverified on May 22, 2026 against:

• usebrave.org — Banks Supporting BRAVE list and BRAVE-Ready Organizations list
• Valcre, BRAVE FAQ: For Banks
• Valcre, BRAVE Rollout Guide for Banks

We'll reverify quarterly. The /banks reference page is the always-current version of the bank list.