CRA Marketplace and Black Lake Digital Markets today announced the launch of GATHER™ , a comprehensive end-to-end institutional platform for sourcing, pricing, trading, transferring, and settling CRA-eligible mortgage assets. GATHER™ was conceived and built by Wayne Brown , a career mortgage banking professional with deep roots in community lending, correspondent finance, and CRA program design.
Powered by Black Lake's proprietary auction technology, the GATHER™ platform helps banks manage their CRA obligation, turning a back-office challenge into a capital markets opportunity. GATHER™ supports the full spectrum of qualifying loan types across purchase, refinance, and specialty programs. It features a buy box matching engine built for precision lending decisions. This engine considers assessment area mapping, income and product eligibility, and portfolio gap analyses.
"GATHER is the platform I spent my entire career wishing existed," said Wayne Brown, Founder of GATHER™ CRA Marketplace . "It connects the originators producing CRA product with the banks that need it. And it does so efficiently, transparently, and with documentation that actually survives an examination."
GATHER™ standardizes loan tape data from any originator format into a consistent, validated, institution-ready data structure at the loan level. This happens before loans are auctioned and managed in an end-to-end transaction, with systematic document exchange, exception handling, and servicer coordination.
The platform's key capabilities include:
Originator Sourcing Network: Direct pipeline from IMBs, community banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies producing CRA-eligible volume. CRA Eligibility Scoring & Documentation: Loan-level qualification powered by MATRIX™ against FFIEC income limits, census tract designations, program criteria, and exam standards. It produces examiner-ready output on every transaction. Buy-Box Matching Engine: Systematic, real-time routing of originator supply to bank buyers based on assessment area, income tier, product type, and CRA exam-cycle priority. Structured Price Discovery: Competitive auction formats and bilateral execution options that surface true market pricing and replace opaque bilateral negotiation permanently. Standardized Due Diligence Infrastructure: Consistent data rooms, documentation protocols, and eligibility packages. Every counterparty operates from the same verified information set. Automated Settlement & Post-Trade Workflow: Systematic execution from bid acceptance through final funding, document delivery, and servicer boarding. Powered by MATRIX™, which compresses timelines from weeks to days. Clean Loan Transfer & Boarding: Coordinated transfer of loan files, servicing rights, and compliance documentation to the receiving institution with full boarding support. Full Compliance Archive: Every transaction logged, time-tamped, and accessible. Designed for federal banking examiner scrutiny from day one. "GATHER™ represents exactly the kind of institutional-grade infrastructure we built Black Lake to power," said Al Qureshi, CEO and co-founder of Black Lake . "CRA compliance has long been a friction point between originators and banks, and we're proud to provide the technology backbone that eliminates that friction at scale."
GATHER™ is available immediately to qualified institutional participants. Lenders, investors, and servicers interested in learning more about the platform or participating in upcoming auctions can learn more at: gathermarkets.net .
About Wayne Brown
Wayne Brown , the Founder of GATHER™ is a career mortgage banking professional with expertise in community lending, correspondent finance and CRA program design. As a former Senior Director of the Freddie Mac Cash Desk, Wayne spent over a decade working strategically with banks and credit unions across the nation around affordable products & deal structure. Wayne brings this unique experience to the GATHER™ program. In addition, Wayne's career spans decades at the intersection of regulatory obligation and capital markets execution. This perspective allows Wayne to serve both sides of the originator-bank relationship, and Wayne is excited to finally deploy a scalable solution to the industry.
About Black Lake Digital Markets
Black Lake Services, LLC d/b/a Black Lake Digital Markets ("Black Lake") operates a comprehensive end-to-end mortgage technology ecosystem spanning underwriting, pricing, trading, transfer, settlement, tokenization, and third-party staging. By unifying every stage of the mortgage lifecycle on a single platform, Black Lake delivers institutional-grade infrastructure that makes mortgage markets faster, more transparent, and more efficient for all participants.
Black Lake is the marketing name for a group of affiliated companies providing a range of services. All services are provided through separate agreements with each company. This material is for general information purposes only and is not intended to provide specific advice or a specific recommendation. Black Lake Investment Solutions LLC ("Black Lake") wholly owns Black Lake Services LLC d/b/a Black Lake Digital Markets and Black Lake Investments LLC. Black Lake Digital Markets offers proprietary technology services for the pricing, trading, and transfer of mortgage assets.
Black Lake does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Black Lake is not a licensed insurance company and does not underwrite or sell insurance products.
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