The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) today announced the availability of data on small business, small farm, and community development lending reported by commercial banks and thrifts.

The regulations that implement the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) generally require the reporting of data on these types of lending by independent commercial banks and savings associations having total assets of $250 million or more, and by commercial banks and savings associations of any size if owned by a holding company having assets of $1 billion or more. Analysis of Call Report and Thrift Financial Report data indicates that reporting institutions account for about 88 percent of the number of small business loans and about 32 percent of the number of small farm loans extended by all commercial banks and savings associations.

The 2002 CRA data reflect originations and purchases of small business, small farm, and community development loans from 1,986 institutions, including 1,495 commercial banks and 491 savings associations. (See attached fact sheet and related tables.) Approximately 8 million small business loans, totaling $253 billion, and approximately 256,000 small farm loans, totaling $16 billion, were reported for 2002. The number of small business loans reported in 2002 increased by 24 percent from 2001; the total dollar amount of these loans increased by about 13 percent from 2001 to 2002. The number of small farm loans reported in 2002 increased by 9 percent from 2001; the total dollar amount of these loans increased by 13 percent.

The small business and small farm lending data reported under the CRA regulations are more limited than the data reported on home mortgage lending under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The CRA data include information on loans originated or purchased, not on applications that are denied by the institution or withdrawn by the applicant. The CRA data are not reported on an application-by-application basis; rather, the CRA data are aggregated into three loan-size categories and then reported at the census tract level.

About 31 percent of the small business loans reported for 2002 were extended to borrowers with revenues of $1 million or less, down from 40 percent in 2001, and down sharply from a high point of 60 percent in 1999. The decrease in the share of lending to small firms since 1999 is primarily the result of a substantial increase in reported lines of credit, renewals of such lines with larger limits, and credit card lending to larger firms. The proportion of small farm loans made to borrowers with revenues of $1 million or less in 2002 was 88 percent, about the same percentage as in 2001. The vast majority of reported small business loans (93 percent) and small farm loans (82 percent) extended in 2002 were for amounts under $100,000. Small business loans were heavily concentrated in central city and suburban areas, as are both the U.S. population and U.S. businesses. Small farm loans were heavily concentrated in rural areas.

The variation in small business lending among census tracts grouped into income categories generally parallels the distribution of the population and businesses among these categories. In lower-income areas, most small business loans are made in central city census tracts; in higher-income areas, small business loans are most frequently made in suburban census tracts. Most small farm loans are made in rural areas regardless of area income. A comparison of small business lending activity in low-, moderate-, middle-, and upper-income areas in 2002 with 2001 shows that the share of the total number of loans and of the dollar amount of lending in these areas remained about the same.

In 2002, commercial banks and savings associations reported community development lending that totaled approximately $28 billion. The dollar amount of community development loans increased by about 13 percent from 2001 to 2002. The number of these loans is larger than in 2001, up about 17 percent to 30,554.

A community development loan has as its primary purpose affordable housing for low- or moderate-income individuals, community services targeted to these individuals, activities that promote economic development by financing small businesses or small farms, or activities that revitali01/15/2009 10:56 AM CRA regulations, retail institutions do not report community development loans as small business or small farm loans, or as home mortgage loans under HMDA (except for multifamily dwelling loans reported under HMDA).

The FFIEC has prepared a disclosure statement from the 2002 CRA data reported, in electronic form, for each reporting commercial bank and savings association. The FFIEC also has prepared aggregate disclosure statements of small business and small farm lending for each of the metropolitan areas and each of the non-metropolitan counties in the United States and its territories, and has distributed these statements to central depositories throughout the nation, where they are available for public inspection. The 2002 CRA data will be available on the FFIEC web site today (www.ffiec.gov/cra). An order form for CRA data and related items, with descriptions of the various reports and formats available, is attached to this release and is also available on the FFIEC web site. Central depository locations, and an order form for other data available from the FFIEC (including data on home mortgage loans reported under HMDA), can be found on the FFIEC web site.

Attachments:

Fact Sheet on 2002 Data (with tables) (Note: Tables are in PDF)
CRA Data Order Form and Item Descriptions (PDF)