Community bank

A community bank is a depository institution that is typically locally owned and operated. Community banks tend to focus on the needs of the businesses and families where the bank holds branches and offices. Lending decisions are made by people who understand the local needs of families, businesses and farmers. Employees often reside within the communities they serve.

In the United States, community banks are not clearly defined. Most agencies base this term on aggregate assets size with varying definitions such as less than $1 billion (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) up to less than $10 billion (Federal Reserve Board and Government Accountability Office).[1] From 1985 to 2004 they comprised roughly 94% of all banks in the United States, but the proportion of expanding total national deposits that the Community Banks held declined from about 25.89% of all U.S. deposits in 1985 to 13.55% of the U.S. deposits in 2003