Do community banks have to use BRAVE?

No. As of 2026, Bank OZK is the only bank to publicly require BRAVE-format delivery (effective March 15, 2026). The 25 other banks listed by UseBRAVE — including community-bank names like Hancock Whitney, First Citizens, and United Community Bank — are supporting adopters, not mandate-issuers. Community banks adopt BRAVE voluntarily for the data-quality and analytics benefits.

What's the smallest community bank that can practically adopt BRAVE?

BRAVE adoption is decoupled from bank size. A community bank with under $1B in assets can adopt BRAVE if it has any LOS that imports CSV or XLSX (most do) and an appraisal review workflow. The two real prerequisites are: (1) appraiser engagement letters that can be updated to require a BRAVE file, and (2) a single point person on the credit or appraisal review team to validate incoming files. No engineering resources are required for a pilot.

How long does it take a community bank to start accepting BRAVE files?

Most community banks can begin a BRAVE pilot in 2-4 weeks: 1 week to update appraiser engagement language, 1-2 weeks to map BRAVE fields into the LOS (often a vendor configuration call), and 1 week of parallel review where the appraiser delivers both PDF and BRAVE XLSX for each engagement. Full rollout across all appraiser panels typically takes 3-6 months.

Which BRAVE fields are non-negotiable for community bank CRE underwriting?

The minimum useful field set for a community bank CRE loan is: Property.AddressStreet through PostalCode, Property.Type, Value.ReconciledFinal, Value.Date, and Appraiser.Name + LicenseNum. For income-producing collateral, add Income.NetOperatingIncome and Value.CapRate. These 9-10 fields cover collateral identification, value, and DSCR inputs. The remaining 89 BRAVE fields are useful for portfolio analytics but not required for a single underwriting decision.

What happens if an appraiser delivers an invalid BRAVE file?

Common errors include missing required fields, incorrect data types (numeric values delivered as text), or cap rates outside the realistic 1-20% range. Best practice for community banks: validate the file at intake — either via the free validator at usebrave.org or via an automated tool like AppraisalAPI — and reject and request a corrected file before the appraisal enters underwriting. Do not load invalid BRAVE data into the LOS even if the PDF is acceptable; the discrepancy creates audit risk.

Does BRAVE replace the appraisal PDF?

No. BRAVE is delivered alongside the PDF, not instead of it. The PDF remains the legally-recognized appraisal report; BRAVE is the structured data extracted from it. Regulators (OCC, FDIC, FRB) still expect the narrative PDF for examination. BRAVE just makes the numbers inside the PDF machine-readable so banks can analyze them without manual rekeying.

BRAVE for Community Banks: 2026 Adoption Guide

Banks Adopting BRAVE

BRAVE adoption is no longer just a two-bank watchlist. Bank OZK is the clearest public example of a hard requirement, while the public UseBRAVE site now lists a broader group of banks supporting the standard. Valcre's bank rollout materials also describe regional banks adopting BRAVE during 2026 and recommend phased rollout plans for institutions that want to reduce risk.

Public adoption snapshot

BRAVE is moving from first mandate to broader bank support

Updated Apr 27, 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

Listed by UseBRAVE

The public UseBRAVE site now lists a much broader set of banks supporting BRAVE, including regional and community-bank names beyond the early Bank OZK mandate.

Source: usebrave.org

Banks publicly listed as supporting BRAVE

Ameris Bank

Associated Bank

Bank of Hawaii

Bank of Hope

Bank of Missouri

BankUnited

BECU

Capital One

Chase Bank

Citizens Bank

First Citizens Bank

First Horizon Bank

First United Bank

Frost Bank

Hancock Whitney

Huntington Bank

MidFirst Bank

SouthState Bank

TD Bank

United Community Bank

US Bank

Washington Trust

Western Alliance Bank

Woodforest Bank

WSFS 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.

Why Community Banks Should Adopt BRAVE

Community banks — typically defined as institutions with under $10 billion in assets — often process commercial real estate appraisals manually. A loan officer reads the PDF, re-keys the critical figures into the loan origination system, and an underwriter checks the numbers. This process is slow, error-prone, and expensive relative to the bank's staffing levels.

The BRAVE standard offers community banks a way to automate the ingestion of appraisal data without building custom integrations or investing in enterprise-grade systems. Because BRAVE is an open, standardized format, it works with any loan origination system that can import structured data.

Getting Started with BRAVE at a Community Bank

Adopting BRAVE does not require a massive technology overhaul. Valcre's rollout guidance outlines pilot-first, big-bang, and segment-based approaches; for most community banks, the pilot-first path is the best fit because it lets the credit, appraisal review, and data teams test real files before changing every engagement letter. Most banks can begin accepting BRAVE files in three steps:

Step 1: Update Your Appraiser Engagement Letters

Add a requirement that appraisals be delivered with a BRAVE-format data file (XLSX) in addition to the standard PDF report. BRAVE — created by Valcre as an open industry standard — has 99 fields in 6 categories (Job, Property, Income, Value, Appraiser). Specify which fields are most important based on your loan types. For a baseline set of requirements, see our BRAVE Compliance Checklist.

Step 2: Configure Your Loan Origination System

Most modern LOS platforms can import CSV or XLSX data. Work with your vendor to map BRAVE fields to your system's data fields. The core mappings typically include:

Property address and type (Property.AddressStreet, Property.AddressCity, Property.Type) to your collateral record
Reconciled final value (Value.ReconciledFinal) to the appraised value field
NOI (Income.NetOperatingIncome) and cap rate (Value.CapRate) to your underwriting worksheet
Value date (Value.Date) to the appraisal date field

Step 3: Validate Incoming BRAVE Files

Not every appraiser will deliver a perfect BRAVE file on the first try. Set up a validation step — either manual or automated — to check incoming files for completeness and accuracy. Tools like AppraisalAPI.com can validate BRAVE files against the specification and flag missing or malformed fields before the data enters your system. For a catalog of specific errors and fixes, see our common BRAVE validation errors guide.

Which BRAVE Fields Matter Most for Community Banks

Community banks typically focus on a narrower set of BRAVE fields than large national lenders. The essential fields for most community bank CRE loans are:

Property fields: Property.Name, Property.AddressStreet through Property.AddressPostalCode, Property.Type, and Property.LegalDescription.
Value fields: Value.ReconciledFinal, Value.Date, Value.IncomeApproach, Value.SalesApproach, Value.CostApproach.
Income fields: For income-producing properties, Income.NetOperatingIncome, Income.EffectiveGrossIncome, and Income.OperatingExpenses are critical for debt service coverage calculations.
Appraiser fields: Appraiser.Name and Appraiser.LicenseNum for regulatory compliance.

Note: BRAVE does not include comparable sales fields. Comp data remains in the PDF report narrative.

You do not need to require every BRAVE field for every appraisal. Tailor your requirements to your loan types and risk appetite.

Benefits Beyond Efficiency

Adopting BRAVE delivers benefits beyond faster data entry:

Regulatory preparedness. Examiners increasingly expect banks to demonstrate data governance around collateral valuation. BRAVE provides an auditable, structured record of appraisal data.

Portfolio analytics. Once appraisal data is in structured form, community banks can analyze cap rate trends, value-per-unit benchmarks, and expense ratios across their portfolio — capabilities previously available only to larger institutions.

Appraiser accountability. BRAVE files make it easy to spot appraisals with missing data or internal inconsistencies, improving the quality of work from your approved appraiser panel.

For banks ready to take the next step, our BRAVE for Regional Banks guide covers more advanced implementation patterns, including API-based ingestion and automated underwriting workflows. For background on why the industry is moving toward structured data, read why banks require BRAVE and see how Bank OZK's mandate set the standard.