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Community Banks Build Communities

Community banks are an integral part of Main Street; they reinvest local dollars back into the community and help create local jobs. Their relationship banking philosophy is ingrained in the way they conduct business, one loan—one customer—at a time. Local reinvestment helps small businesses grow and helps families finance major purchases and build financial security.

Community banks also are nimble in using new technology platforms, supporting emerging methods of payments and advocating tougher security standards to protect small-business owners and customers from hackers and other criminals.

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Community banks support communities.

Want to learn how you can support community banks?

Read ICBA's Community Focus 2020 policy platform to learn what common-sense reforms would help promote greater access to financial services and economic opportunity throughout local communities nationwide.

Read Community Focus 2020


“We bank our communities one loan, one account at a time—supporting prosperity town-by-town and neighborhood-by-neighborhood across the nation. Being a volunteer and an active member of the community is what community bankers do.”

—Tim Zimmerman, chairman, Standard Bank, Monroeville, Pa.


 
What Sets Community Banks Apart  

  • Local Focus: Unlike larger banks that may take deposits in one state and lend in others, community banks channel their loans to the neighborhoods where their depositors live and work, which helps local businesses and communities thrive.
  • Relationship Banking: Community bank officers know their customers and may consider family history and discretionary spending in making loans. Megabank loan officers apply impersonal qualification criteria, such as credit scoring, without regard to individual circumstances.
  • Community bankers also work hand in hand with customers to ensure they have access to the best innovations possible to meet their needs—such as the most secure, reliable and convenient payment options.
  • Lending Leadership to Small Business: According to the Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey: Report on Employer Firms, community banks are the small business lender of choice.
    • 73 percent of independent businesses that used community banks report they were satisfied with their overall experience, compared with 49 percent for large banks and just 35 percent for online lenders.
    • Independent businesses that apply for loans with community banks are the most successful and the most satisfied.
  • Timely Decision-Making: Community banks offer nimble decision-making on business loans because decisions are made locally. Megabanks must often convene loan-approval committees located in another state, far away from their customers.
  • Community Engagement and Accessibility: Community bank officers are typically deeply involved in their local communities, while megabank officers are often detached from the communities where their branches are located.

As local small businesses themselves, community banks only thrive when their customers and communities flourish. They answer to Main Street. Megabanks are driven by shareholder value and answer to Wall Street. 

Community banks vs megabanks

Often referred to as America’s Favorite Lenders, community banks:

  • Comprise 99% of all banks
  • Provide more than 60% of all small business loans
  • Make more than 80% of agricultural loans
  • Have 52,000 locations across the country
  • Employ 760,000 people
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