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Quick answer: The FFIEC retired the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) on August 31, 2025, and did not replace it with an equivalent. Community banks should now choose from FFIEC-recognized alternatives: NIST CSF 2.0, CISA Cybersecurity Performance Goals, the CRI Cyber Profile, or CIS Controls guided by their size, risk profile, and examiner expectations.
If your bank leaned on the FFIEC CAT to structure your annual cybersecurity assessment and prep for exams, you already know it’s gone. What you might not know yet is what to do next, and that’s a more complicated question than it sounds.
The CAT had one major thing going for it: it was free, standardized, and FFIEC-branded. Examiners knew it. Banks knew it. You ran through it, you had a report, and everyone was on the same page. But that simple dynamic no longer exists.
Now your bank has to pick a framework, defend that choice to examiners, and produce documentation that tells a coherent story about your cybersecurity posture. For a community bank with a small IT team, that is a meaningful shift. Learn more about how RESULTS Technology supports community banks through exactly this kind of transition.
What Happened to the FFIEC CAT Tool?
The FFIEC released the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool in June 2015 as a voluntary self-assessment resource to help financial institutions identify risks and gauge cybersecurity preparedness. For nearly a decade, community banks used it as a go-to benchmark, especially heading into regulatory exams.
The problem was that the cybersecurity landscape kept moving and the CAT did not. It was last referenced in the FFIEC’s 2016 Information Security booklet update. By the time NIST released the first draft of CSF 2.0 and CISA published its Cybersecurity Performance Goals, the CAT was already significantly out of step with where the industry and regulators were heading.
Faced with a choice between updating the tool or retiring it, the FFIEC chose the latter. The official statement put it plainly: “The FFIEC has determined not to update the CAT to reflect new government resources, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Cybersecurity Performance Goals.”
The CAT was removed from the FFIEC website on August 31, 2025. No direct replacement was issued.
What Does the FFIEC Recommend Instead for Cybersecurity Assessment Tools?
The FFIEC pointed supervised financial institutions toward four recognized alternatives. Here is a brief breakdown of FFIEC CAT replacement:
NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0
NIST CSF 2.0 is flexible, scalable, and organized around five core functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. It works for organizations of any size and serves as the foundation that most other frameworks build on.
CISA Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs)
A more prescriptive, baseline-focused set of practices developed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The CPGs are designed for critical infrastructure sectors, including financial services. CISA has also released sector-specific goals for the financial sector, making this a practical starting point for banks that want clear, measurable benchmarks.
CRI Cyber Profile
Developed by the Cyber Risk Institute specifically for financial institutions, the CRI Cyber Profile maps directly to NIST CSF 2.0 and accounts for the regulatory environment community banks actually operate in. It integrates naturally with Enterprise Risk Management programs, including business continuity and third-party risk functions.
CIS Controls
A prioritized, action-oriented set of cybersecurity controls from the Center for Internet Security. The CIS Controls are concrete and specific, which makes them useful for banks that want clear implementation guidance rather than a broader framework.
The FFIEC does not endorse any single tool. Your bank gets to choose and must be able to justify that choice.
Why This Is a Bigger Problem for Community Banks
A large bank with a dedicated security team and a compliance officer can evaluate four frameworks, map controls, and build a new assessment workflow in a matter of weeks. For a community bank where one person manages IT, compliance, and vendor relationships simultaneously, it’s a different story.
The CAT required no explanation to an examiner. Everyone understood what it was and what the results meant. The FFIEC CAT replacement frameworks are excellent, but they require your team to make decisions: Which framework fits our risk profile? How do we document our approach in a way examiners can follow? What does “right-sized” actually mean for a bank our size?
These are not simple questions, and they do not come with a checklist.
What to Look for in a FFIEC CAT Replacement Approach
Whatever framework your bank adopts, a few practical criteria will matter most when exam time comes.
- Clear alignment with FFIEC examination expectations. Your framework should map to the areas examiners actually focus on, including governance, access controls, incident response, and third-party risk.
- Documentation that examiners can actually use. A framework is only as useful as the evidence it produces. Your bank should be able to show which framework it uses, why, how controls map to your risks, and what has changed over time.
- Scalability to your team’s capacity. A framework that requires a full-time analyst to operate is not the right fit for a team of two. The goal is a sustainable, repeatable process.
How RESULTS Technology Helps Community Banks Navigate This Transition
RESULTS Technology works with community banks to interpret and implement whichever cybersecurity framework makes the most sense for their size, risk profile, and regulatory environment. That means helping your team understand what examiners will expect post-CAT, mapping your existing controls against your chosen framework, and producing the kind of documentation that holds up under scrutiny.
This work ties directly into RESULTS’ fully-managed IT services and INVICTA cybersecurity platform, which is already designed to meet FFIEC compliance requirements for system hardening, intrusion detection, vulnerability analysis, and reporting. The goal is not to hand you a new checklist and send you off alone. It’s to build a cybersecurity program that runs consistently and keeps your bank exam-ready year-round.
RESULTS works with a trusted provider that offers an easy-to-use, affordable CAT replacement tool, giving banks access to both the assessment solution and RESULTS’ cybersecurity expertise.
Your Next Step
If your bank hasn’t identified a Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) replacement yet, you don’t have to sort through the options on your own. RESULTS Technology can help your team evaluate the available frameworks and tools, understand how options such as the CRI/Trac tool may fit your bank, and select an approach that makes sense for your size, risk profile, and regulatory needs.
RESULTS Technology offers a cybersecurity risk assessment that can help establish a baseline by identifying the controls you already have in place and where gaps may exist. Whether you need help choosing the right assessment tool or evaluating your current cybersecurity posture, RESULTS can help you determine the most practical next step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the FFIEC CAT still required?
No. The FFIEC CAT was retired on August 31, 2025, and removed from the FFIEC website. It is no longer available or officially supported. Community banks are not required to use it and should transition to an alternative framework.
What is the best FFIEC CAT replacement for a community bank?
There is no single best replacement. The FFIEC recommends four alternatives: NIST CSF 2.0, CISA Cybersecurity Performance Goals, the CRI Cyber Profile, and CIS Controls. Most community banks start with NIST CSF 2.0 as a foundation, given its broad adoption rate among financial institutions. Banks with limited staff may benefit from partnering with a managed IT provider to implement whichever framework fits their risk profile.
Can we keep using our old Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) results?
Old CAT results are no longer a sufficient basis for an examiner-ready cybersecurity assessment. They may help inform a gap analysis against a newer framework, but examiners will expect to see documentation tied to a currently recognized tool, not a retired one.
Do community banks need software to replace the CAT?
Not necessarily. Some banks manage assessments using spreadsheets or manual documentation. That said, purpose-built tools and managed service providers can reduce the burden significantly, especially for small IT teams. The priority is producing clear, consistent documentation.
How often should a community bank complete a cybersecurity assessment?
At minimum, annually. However, regulatory expectations are shifting toward more continuous monitoring and ongoing risk evaluation, rather than a once-a-year exercise. Banks should also reassess after significant changes to their environment, such as new vendors, system upgrades, or a security incident.
